Story Superman: The Man of Tomorrow -- Will continue next week

Title:Superman: The Man of Tomorrow
Author: mrjop2
Genre: Action/Adventure/Romance/Drama
Summary: The reimaginated story of Superman comes to it's climactic conclusion! The long dreaded arrival of Darkseid has come... The day of the Apokolips has arived! Superman must give everything he has to overcome this dark god whose powers even surpasses his own. This all happens as He and Lois Lane prepare for their wedding... will they even get the chance to get married or will the Earth meet it's doom.
Disclaimer: The following story is meant for entertainment purpose only; not meant to infringe upon any copyright laws. No profit was or should be made on the following material. Story written: 2012. This is part one of a planned trilogy re-imagining the classic superhero. This is how I would love to see Superman come to the theaters.

The Superman Trilogy
Book 1: Superman: The Last Son of Krypton
Book 2: Superman: The Man of Steel
Book 3: Superman: The Man of Tomorrow (CURRENT)

Chapter 1

FAR INTO THE OUTMOST PARTS OF SPACE
100 YEARS BEFORE CURRENT EARTH DATE



New Genesis was a paradise planet. Grassy-green hills as far as the eyes could see. Flowers of every shade of color painted the ground. The planet had more marvelous wonders than any other. Hovering over the wild life of New Genesis was the floating city of Necropolis. From the heart of the city, a giant water fall emptied itself down onto a large river on the planet’s surface. The mist created as the water crashed onto the flowing river rose like a refreshing, white, misty smoke. It was a majestic sight to all who beheld it.



The city, itself, was the pride and joy of the planet. Once home to the gods, every aspect of the massive city demanded royalty. The main castle was made purely of gold and bronze. The trees surrounding the castle... greener than any other trees on the planet. While not as grandiose as the main castle, the rest of the city on this floating island complimented it beautifully. The city now was nothing more than a testament of a long lost civilization. The gods had all died off by an evil very few were brave enough to talk about. The people of New Genesis left the city abandoned, hoping that the rumors of the god’s demise were exaggerated, and that they would one day return to ward off the Evil One.



The people who dwelled on the surface were not nearly as technically advanced as those that once lived in the great city. Some tribes lived primitively in the jungles of New Genesis, while others were more advanced and lived in carved-stone temples and buildings. None of the tribes were sophisticated enough to protect themselves from forces of Apokolips; fortunately, New Genesis was currently under the protection of the great military might of Krypton.



Staring at the grand city with youthful, exuberant eyes, little Barda’s imagination ran wild. She imagined what it must have been like to be a god, living in that glorious city. What it must have been like to live without fear of death on a daily basis. The gods were mighty, not even the Evil One could stand against them. If only she could be just like them.



“Daydreaming again?” a soft, masculine voice said behind her. The voice was gentle enough not to startle her abruptly from her daydreaming.



“Yeah!” The young girl turned to see the loving eyes of her father staring down at her. Her face blushed as a smile enveloped her small round face from ear to ear. She spun around to sit properly on the stone ledge. “Tell me more, father! Continue the story.”



Her father smiled, amused by his daughters enthusiasm about the gods. As much as he was trying to protect her from her past; her instincts were relentless in trying to draw her to the truth. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold the truth from her, at this rate. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea; I don’t want to scare you.”



“I won’t get scared,” Barda said, shaking her head and waving her long, wavy, black hair. “I’m a brave girl. Tell me where the Evil One came from?”



Her father sat down on the ledge beside her, looking at her as if to say he still wasn’t sure if it was a good idea in telling her this part of the story of the gods. Whether she felt his hesitation or not, she didn’t let on. She was so excited about hearing the next part of the story that she leaped off the ledge so she could leap onto her father’s lap. “Oh very well, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”



<><><>



Long ago, before the gods dwelled in our reality, they lived in a realm of unparalleled peace and harmony. They lived alone, able to watch over all other realms and realities. There was no evil, no crime, and no injustice to speak off.



Their lives were perfection until one day... all of that changed. After a several lifetimes of serving the magnificent Highfather, the god, whose original name shall never be spoken, allowed his hunger for power to poison his soul. Jealous of Highfather’s powers, this dark god sought to overthrow him, and to rule over all the other gods.



Orion, son of Highfather, discovered this evil plot against his father and confronted him. Angered by this opposition, he fought against the great Orion, in an attempt to destroy him. Evenly matched, their battle would have lasted for eternity until Hightfather, himself, confronted the dark lord. With an anger that no god had ever seen before, he showered the god of darkness with all of his wrath, until he was forced to bow before him.



Humbled and humiliated, the dark god could do nothing but accept his punishment. From that moment on, his name was lost, and he would forever be known as Darkseid. For his crimes, he was banished from their realm, and into ours, condemned to live life without his own body. However, even Highfather failed to realize the tenacity of Darkseid.



The dark lord roamed the galaxy in a gas form until he came across the planet of Urgrund. There he came across a man in prison for hideous crimes against mankind. This man was so twisted, that he had sought to commit genocide on global scale. He was sentenced to execution, but a day before his execution was to take place, Darkseid found him.



Through promises of greatness, unlimited power, and wealth, he deceived the criminal into allowing him to enter his body. Darkseid promised that his soul would still be his, but this would be the only deception. When the dark god possessed him, the criminal’s soul was vanquished. His body became like black stone. When it was done, there was nothing left but the massive shell of a vengeful, evil god. Darkseid had consumed the host so that he could live in this realm. Having been banished from the realm of the gods, he decided to rule this realm instead.



In unspeakable and horrific acts, he enslaved every last person on Urgrund through his dark powers. He transfigured the planet until it was unrecognizable. The planet became an ecumenopolis with burning firepits all over the planet. Doomed to burn for all eternity, Urgrund ceased to exist, and from that day forth, it became known as Apokolips.



When the gods saw what Darkseid had done, they knew that they had no choice but to pay penance for their mistake of having brought upon this tragedy to the beings of this realm. They decided to banish themselves from their utopia, their realm of joyous jubilation and tranquility. They exiled themselves into this realm, so they may defend the galaxy from Darkseid and his growing legion of death and destruction.



They found this planet, the planet we call our home: New Genesis. This was where they made their new dwelling so they may forever fulfill their punishment as defenders of this galaxy.



<><><>



“So what happened to the gods? How’d the Evil One beat them?” Barda asked, with puffy eyes and swollen cheeks. She was trying desperately not to cry and let her father think that she wasn’t as brave.



There was no hiding her emotions from her father. He could see that he had probably gone overboard in telling the story. He feared that she was not ready to hear that part of the story, and his instincts had proven to be right. If this part of the story had been too much for this young child, the next part certainly was. “That, my daughter, is a story for another day.”



She was not thrilled with that answer. She was a very impatient young girl, who hated cliffhangers, especially if the story was about gods. She may be too young to understand, but he knew exactly why the stories meant the world to her. He had to do something to quell her unease, before he started getting questions that he wasn’t ready to answer. “You don’t have to be afraid of Darkseid. I’ve taught you about the prophesy of Orion, right?”



“Yeah,” she said, as if she really wasn’t convinced by his soothing, comforting words.



“As long as we hold on to his words, we have nothing to fear.” He said, lifting her little chin up so her eyes can look up into his. His eyes were soft and caring; somehow, they’ve always had a calming effect on her. “He promised that one day, a hero will wise and defeat the darkness. He will have sacrificed much to become the hero he was destined to be. He will be a visitor among his own people. He will have the powers of the gods, and he will protect those who can’t protect themselves. He will be a light of hope, and will have nerves of steel.”



He had recited that prophetic poem to her several times, but this time, it did seem to brighten her day a little. She had something new to imagine, and knowing her, she would be dreaming of being the prophesied hero who would vanquish Darkseid. Her head always seemed to be in the clouds. It only showed that hiding the truth from her was only going to get harder.



The moment of bonding was rudely interrupted by the violent nature of an explosion. Barda was off of his lap faster than he had ever seen her move. He too jumped to his feet as they were joined by his wife, who came running from their stone hut. “What was that?”



There was no need for anyone to answer her question out loud; it was obvious what was happening. After only getting a brief glimpse of the aftermath of the explosion off in a distant, another explosion erupted even closer to their home. Smoke and flames elevated from the two impact zones, only to have another two explosions add to the chaos. New Genesis was under attack.



“Quickly, inside!” Barda’s father cried. Desperation, to protect his family, took control of all of his senses. If Darkseid had managed to launch this unprovoked attack on them, it meant that the Kryptonians were unaware of the dark lord’s intentions. He prayed that word would get to them that their assistance was desperately needed. Until then, he had to take his daughter and his wife to safety. If Darkseid learned about Barda then...



A bright white tube of light pierced reality between them and their home. It was a boom tunnel, a technology of the gods that Darkseid was able to reproduce for his own purposes. This allowed them to transport from one location to another instantaneously. Before anyone had the opportunity to walk through the boom tunnel, he could feel his heart break. There was only one reason why Darkseid would take notice of a poor, wretched family like theirs.



The situation was more grim than he imagined as the dark lord of Apokolips, himself, walked out of the boom tunnel, followed closely by his second-in-command, Granny Goodness. He had never seen Darkseid in person until this very day. The outcaste god was more intimidating than he had feared. He was dark and taller than any person he had ever seen. His stone muscles were massive, and they only testified of his strength.



Granny Goodness was a god just like her master. She did not rebel against the gods until after they came to this reality, and lived here on New Genesis. To her, this planet was a dark reminder of everything she gave up to followed the dark lord. She was actually older than time, itself, just like her master. Gods were immortal; they did not taste death unless it was by the hand of another god. Other than that, Barda’s father had no knowledge of her back-story, or why she even appeared to be an old woman on the outside. For all he knew, it could have been a result of Darkseid’s torture.



The boom tunnel remained open as Darkseid peered at the three of them with his devilish red-glowing eyes. He was studying them for the briefest of moments until his gaze moved down towards little Barda. The young child, scared beyond words, hid behind her father’s leg, her face already moistened from tears of fear. The lord of Apokolips studied her very intently until a grin appeared on his face, and his terrorizing silence broke. “That’s her. Bring the child to me.”



“No!” Barda’s mother squealed in desperation. Willing to lay down his life for his daughter, the father took a step forward as means to challenge anyone who would take his daughter from him. It was as he had feared, Darkseid had learned about his daughter, and had come to collect her. He had no idea how he could have learned the truth, but the father was willing to do whatever it took to stop that from happening.



A hand pulled him aside, as one of Darkseid’s armored soldiers appeared out of nowhere to prevent him from getting in the way. Another soldier took his wife by the arm, and before either of them knew it, they were being forced onto their knees as Granny Goodness grabbed Barda by the arm and dragged her, fighting and screaming, to her master. Holding the child in such a firm grip to keep the child immobile, Darkseid inspected her closely as to confirm his suspicions. “Indeed, she is a god, isn’t that right?” he turned his devil-eyes towards her father. “Did you really think you could hide a child of a god from me?”



He couldn’t formulate any words in reply. Yes, it was true... he and his wife were not her real parents. After the gods were slain by the dark lord, this little girl was left behind in the great city. Who knew how old the child actually was, she could have been thirty; gods did not age as quickly as any other species. There was no telling how long she was left alone in Necropolis. She was lucky to be found at all.



The great city was once explored by the Kryptonians, much to the dismay of the people of New Genesis. There, they found this young girl, living all alone, barely able to keep herself alive. The Kryptonians, not familiar with the gods that once lived in the city, decided that it was for the best interest of the child that she be given to a family here on New Genesis. A young kryptonian scientist, by the name of Jor-El, was the one who handed Barda over to him and his wife. They were just newly married; not more than twenty years of age at the time. Now twenty years later, they had grown older and more mature, but Barda only seemed to be one year older since that day.



“She will become the head of my honor guard, and lead my army to the conquest of the galaxy.”



“Please, I beg you!” her father pleaded. “She’s just a child!”



His plea fell on deaf ears; it was as if he didn’t hear him at all. He looked at Granny who held the scared little girl in her arms. “You know what must be done here. I want this child to watch; it will be her initiation and it will be the first blood spill, of many, that her eyes will behold.”



“It will be done, my master,” Granny nodded. “What about this planet? Do you wish that to transfigure it for your glory?”



Darkseid squinted. “I have no need of this wretched planet. Destroy it, and do it quickly; the Kryptonian military will not be distracted, much longer, by our assault on their world.”



The ruler of Apokolips turned and walked through the boom tunnel, back to wherever he had come from. The glowing passage way shut down immediately upon his passing, leaving them all alone to what was about to happen. Granny was in charge now, and all of the dark lord’s authority emanated from her. “Soldiers, dispose of them!”



The two armored soldiers walked forward until they were about five paces in front of Barda’s father and mother. Their armors made them look more insect-like with the shape of their eye pieces and the design of their chest and back pieces. Whether they were some kind of insect species or not, there was no telling; the armor covered every inch of them.



The two soldiers pointed their staffs at the kneeling parents. Barda was going frantic in Granny’s arms; tears flowed down her face like a river as she wailed uncontrollably. “Daddy! Daddy!” She fought, desperately, to break free from Granny’s arms, but she was much stronger than normal people. She was physically stronger than her parents, although she was too young to really understand why. Her parents were never able to wrestle with her because of her god-like strength, but Granny Goodness was not like your normal people; she too was a god, and had physical strength as such. Barda could not break free from her grasp.



Granny cupped her tiny chin between her thumb and fore finger, and held her face, preventing the child from looking away. “Now pay close attention, child. You too, will be doing the very same thing to others, some day.”



One of the soldier’s staffs unleashed a blue energy at Barda’s mother. Screaming in unrivaled pain, the beam took no more than a few seconds to completely burn through all the flesh. Collapsing to the ground was nothing more than a charcoaled skeletal frame. Little Barda was screaming wildly now; she was crying so hard, she nearly choked. “No! No! No!”



The other soldier fired his staff, and through a blinding puddle of tears in her eyes, Barda watched as her beloved father perished in the same manner. Just like that, her parents were dead, and no one would ever be able to save her from this nightmare. Her crying picked up a tempo, as the sudden realization that her life was over. Granny, knowing that the child was in a state of shock and would not be able to walk, picked Barda up to carry her. “Okay child, we better depart so not to miss the spectacular view of the destruction of this planet.”



Little Barda found herself being taken onboard a strange, and intimidating ship. The temperature inside of the ship was hot, and it made it immediately uncomfortable. With tears still streaming from her, she was forced to sit on the floor as they showed the planet of New Genesis on the view screen. She had no idea of her surroundings; she was too grief-stricken to care about any of that. Now, she was forced to watch as her planet, and all of her friends and family that lived on it, all perished. The planet exploded without mercy or compassion. A shockwave was unleashed, but the ship, they were on, was already too far away to feel the impact. There was nothing left but asteroids and large rocks floating in empty space.



* * * *



It was another dream, for Big Barda; they were becoming unsettlingly more frequent. Her dreams of having a father and mother and living on a paradise planet was just that... a fictional dream invented by her twisted mind. As far as she could remember, she was raised here on Apokolips to become the warrior that she was. Even though she had the appearance of a forty year old woman, she was at least two hundred. Actually, she did not know her real age; being immortal, time was rather irrelevant. For the past two centuries, she had been here on Apokolips; she had no real memories of this world in her dreams.



Her reality was here on Apoklips, as head of Female Furies; that’s all she had ever known. She wore her blue, scale-like jumpsuit with a gold plated breastplate, boots, and warrior’s helmet. Having been summoned by lord Darkseid, she had her mega-rod at her side, ready to lead her ladies to war.



To her side, her warriors stood ready for their orders. She had trained each and every one of them in the deadly art of warfare. Each of the three women had their deadly skills that made the Female Furies the most deadly force in the galaxy. Lashina was the sexiest of the four women, but her hand-to-hand combat along with her ability with her electric steel-whip made her a force to be reckoned with. Dressed in tight, black spandex, men were often drawn by her sensual nature; an attribute she often used to distract her victims.



Stompa was as massive in her strength as she was massive in body shape. One stomp of her foot, and builds crumbled. She was physically the strongest of all of the Furies. Then, there was Mad Harriet. She was the insane one of the group. She got her thrills by killing her victims in unimaginable ways. She had a metal glove welded onto both of her hands, each with razor sharp claws on each. Barda had grave concerns about her as a member of the Female Furies. Her lust for blood made her loose all reason, making her a loose cannon at times.



Darkseid stood before them, holding his right wrist in the palm of his left behind his back. It was his typical stance meant to intimidate everyone in his presence. He was an overload who never lost his cool, or acted on emotions. He was calm and calculatin; logic was his master. That was what made him very deadly. “I am sending you girls to a planet known as Earth. That world is next to experience my wrath. Granny Goodness is already there. For now, your mission is merely to dispose of a handful of humans who call themselves the Intergang. They have served their purpose; there can be no loose ends. Kill them in any way that amuses you.”



“Yes, lord Darkseid,” Big Barda responded quickly and without hesitation. If he detected any vacillation among his servants, he would kill them with his Omega Beam. He demanded absolute obedience or absolute death; there was no middle ground with him.



A boom tunnel opened in front of them as the familiar voice of Granny Goodness could be heard from the other side. “Furies, kill them all!”



Mad Harriet was so excited, her body was shaking with anticipation. “Oh goody, goody, goody; fresh meat to play with! Barda, you gotta let me have some fun here! Let me rip off a limb or two!”



“Yeah,” Stompa grinned. “I want to squash some heads until they explode like melons.”



Big Barda’s face remained cold like stone. Emotions were a sign of weakness; that much was instilled in her since she was young. She didn’t want her fellow furies to know about the dreams she’s been having. She was glad that the girls had volunteered; she was not in the mood to kill anyone right now. This was the free pass she needed to avoid drawing the wrath of Darkseid upon herself. “If you girls want the kills all to yourselves, then have at it. I will leave them all for you to do as you wish.”



“Yes, yes, yes, yes!” Mad Harriet cheered, more than happy to have permission to go wild.



Lashina was quickly growing impatient with the chatter among her comrades. “Come on girls! Let have us some fun!”

 

Oh, I forgot to add the cover art!

 

Chapter 2

EARTH: PRESENT DAY



Hawaii was a tropical paradise; Lois could hardly believe that she had never found an excuse to come here earlier. It wouldn’t have been all that hard, either. All she would have had to do was tell Perry that she wanted to write some sort of bogus story that required her to come here to investigate, and she would have been here the following day. Her brain was just not wired that way; she loved her job WAY too much.



For the first time in her professional career, she was taking a vacation; two weeks of twenty that she had built-up over the year, and she was not alone. Sitting on a grassy plain, she watched as Clark Kent, or Superman as the world knew him, came flying in with an arm full of Banana’s, Oranges, and other fruit.



Who would have thought that someone like Clark Kent could change her life so drastically. At first, she thought he was a socially awkward farm boy from a small hick’s town of Smallville. She would have never guessed that someone as inept as Clark could be Metropolis’ greatest savior. Despite originally being infatuated with Superman, she had grown to love him more as Clark Kent. There was just something about his clumsy, farm boy persona that melted her hardened heart.



He landed softly onto his feet after his short flight around the Island. He laid out an armful of wild-grown fruit onto the blanket before her. “I think you’ll find these to be the best tasting fruits that you’ve ever tasted.”



The fruit did look more delicious than she had ever seen. They were larger than their counterparts at grocery stores. Hawaii was known for some of its delicious fruits, but some of the fruit he brought back looked out of place. “You left the Island, didn’t you?”



“I might have taken a quick trip off the Island, yes.” He replied as he walked behind a lone massive tree that they were using for shade. His Hawaiian shirt and tan khaki pants were hanging from a branch. He grabbed them and with record speed, he put them on over-top his blue, red, and yellow tights.



“You realize this is supposed to be a romantic getaway, right? Leaving your girlfriend alone on the island is not something I would consider to be romantic.”



When he finished getting dressed, he walked out from behind the tree, looking like the vacationing mild-manner reporter that he was. As Clark Kent, she had never seen wear anything but a suit and tie... even on his off days. To see him, now in a red Hawaiian shirt with waving palm trees was something she still could not wrap her head around. “Of course I do. That’s why I thought this was the perfect opportunity to spoil the woman of my dreams!”



“Oh, you really know how to make a girl feel special,” she smiled wickedly, taking a bite of a banana that she partially unpeeled. “Wow, you weren’t kidding! This is the best tasting Banana I’ve ever had!”



Clark chuckled as he sat down next to her. He wasn’t all that hungry; he was content just sitting there and watching her eat. It had to be love if he found her attractive just by consuming a piece of fruit. It was because he was so madly in love with her was how he could tell, that despite her joyous disposition, she was still a little uncomfortable. “You’re still anxious about taking some time off of work?”



She shrugged it off, as if it was the last thing on her mind. He knew better. “They can get along without me for a bit.”



Their picnic had only just started when the floodgates in the sky broke loose. There was no drizzle slowly turning into a steady down pour: One second it was cool and dry, and the next it was cold and wet. It was startling how fast the torrential rain fall had hit them.



Lois squealed at the sudden change of weather, and both of them knew that their private picnic had come to an abrupt end. Clark gathered up all the fruit while Lois rushed to pick up the blanket and wrapped it over her head. When everything was collected, they ran for their car that they rented for this vacation.



Having a rented car was merely for show; if anyone took noticed that they were getting everywhere on the Island without a car, it would raise unwanted suspicions. It may be a small detail to worry about, but Clark was very intelligent when it came to protecting his identity. She would have never thought about that kind of detail; it was a testament to just how smart Clark really was. Pretending to be clumsy and when to allow that characteristic to show itself was even more impressive.



They raced to the car, with their clothes drenched and clinging onto their bodies. When a faint rumble echoed in the sky above them, they knew that this was not a small shower passing by; this storm was going to force things indoors for the rest of day. With that knowledge, it was time to return to the hotel and get into some dry clothes.



* * * *



She never knew it was possible to be this drenched. As Lois and Clark plowed their way into their hotel room, it was already looking like they brought with them the whole ocean. They didn’t care; they were too busy laughing and enjoying themselves. They were too much in love to know how miserable they felt.



After the door slammed shut behind them, they found themselves lost in each other’s gaze. Both were taking long, deep breaths as their little drops of water trickled down their faces. As if drawn together by magnets, they found themselves inching closer and closer together until their lips met and their arms found their way around each other.



* * * *



Snuggling for each other’s warmth, they laid there in bed. After a quick breather, Lois slid her body up to his, underneath the sheets. She rolled herself over, so she could gently lay her chin on his masculine chest. She gently caressed the hairs on his bare chest. “You may be an alien from out of space, but you’re human enough in all the right ways.”



Clark chuckled as he tickled the hairs of the back of her neck just the way she liked. Her skin was warm and as soft as silk. Laying there with her by his side, he had never been so happy in his life. It’s been over year since they first met, and it wasn’t love-at-first-sight, at least not completely. At first, she acted as if he wasn’t even there. Whether she saw him as a professional threat, he could not tell, but she was inarguably put off by his appearance.

Often, he had to wonder if he had gone overboard with everything he did to protect his identity. As Clark Kent, he had to walk with slight hunch like a average-built human, wear a pair of fake glasses which looked so strong, that it not only made him look as if he was blind as a bat, but it distorted the view of his eyes just enough for throw off any suspicion. He also blended together a little ineptness with a tinge of ‘farm-boy’ naiveness. Perhaps, it was all a little too much, and it made everyone look down on him more than they should have. Then again, he was doing it to protect his identity, not to get a woman to fall in love with him.



Lois was enjoying his soft touch on her neck and her bare back. For someone so strong, he had the gentlest hands that she had ever seen. Seeing him without his shirt, she marveled at how he could hide those massive biceps and chest muscles as Clark Kent. Could he physically shrink his muscles at whim? That was going to be one of many things she looked forward to learning. “Aliens and other beings throughout the galaxy knows you as Kal-El. Everyone here on Earth knows you as Superman; while those closest to you know you as Clark Kent. I’m curious, in your mind, who do you think yourself to be?”



Clark took a second to think about that. It was a deep topic for conversation, one of many that he hoped to have with her. “My biological parents may be Kryptonian, and I may think of Krypton as my home, but I was raised on Earth as a child, even before my powers revealed themselves and I knew who I really was. I suppose I think of myself as Clark Kent first and foremost.”



“I’m glad,” Lois said softly. “That’s how I see you too.”



“Besides, I think Lois Kent has a better ring to it than Superwoman or Lois-El.”



Lois tilted her head to look at Clark. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that sounded an awful lot like a marriage proposal.”



He smiled back playfully towards her. She was an intelligent woman; he had no doubt that she’d see through his playful banter for what it really was. “Maybe it was.”



Lois continued with her playful sarcasm. “You know, it’s gonna take a man of steel to marry into a family like mine. My father is not an easy man to get along with. He is a general in the U.S. Army.”



Clark shrugged his shoulders. “If things were easy, they wouldn’t be worth having.”



She had a smile on her face, at first, but it turned serious after she studied his face for a minute. “Are you being serious?”



With her having put the puzzle together, there was no point in prolonging the game. This was a serious matter, and it deserved a serious response. They had been dating officially now for eight wonderful months. Their relationship took a turn just as Lois had inadvertently discovered his secret identity. Even before then, Lois feelings towards him, as Clark Kent, had started to change.



During that time, Clark was in an emotional crisis of his own. His high-school lover, Lana Lang, had come back into his life. He was struggling to figure out who he was truly in love with. A part of him wanted to rekindle the passion that he and Lana had. He had sacrificed their relationship so that he could follow his destiny to become Superman. When she arrived in Metropolis, he almost figured that fate was repaying him for all the sacrifices he made. The problem was, during their long absence apart, they had become different people. He still cared for her, but Lois had won his heart. That was when their relationship would change forever.



“Yes, I’m being very serious.”



The smiled that appeared on her face was all the answer he needed. He had never seen such a huge smile on her face. Joy was erupting out of her like an active volcano. She slid up in bed so her lips could meet up with his. Their bodies again merged as they celebrated their new engagement in their own private way.

 

Chapter 3



His latest project was to rebuild the giant solar generator that had been pretty much destroyed, many months ago, when Metropolis was under siege by a former Kryptonian general. This great invention, that he and Superman had worked on, not only was going to serve Metropolis as alternative power source using the yellow rays of the sun, but it was also serving as an emergency tool to help Superman if he ever came across a villain strong than himself. The consequence of using this generator in that capacity, however, was devastating to the generator. That was exactly how it was used in Superman’s battle with Zod, and now, he was stuck trying to fix the damage. Superman warned that it would take many months to repair such extensive damage, and that was ending up not being such a huge exaggeration, after all.



There were times the professor found this project aggravating; not because how much damage was cause, but because he was the one that caused the damage when it wasn’t necessary. He was used as one of General Zod’s pawns, and deceived into using it to burn up the Kryptonite dust floating towards Metropolis. No one knew that the Kryptonian general had arranged everything so he could be soak in the yellow, radiation beams to become Superman’s equal. Superman didn’t blame him, but Professor Hamilton still couldn’t find it in his heart to forgive himself.



Perhaps that was why he was pushing himself to work these ungodly day-after-day, week-after-week, and now month-after-month. It was his penance for putting the entire planet in jeopardy. Until this generator was done and powering all of Metropolis, there was nothing but this project.



Today’s work had him tracking down a communication error between the touch-screen display panel and the generator. After a few hours, he traced the error to the display panel’s motherboard. He disconnected it from the panel and brought it to a station where he had a magnifying lamp set up for just this kind of scenario. He gently placed the motherboard on the static-free surface, turned on the lamp, and pulled the magnifying glass down. He angled it over the motherboard and inspected each circuit. Somewhere on this board, he suspected he would find a singed circuit. If so, this whole board would have to be replaced.



As he was inspecting it, a bright flash of white light was followed by what sounded like a soft swooshing of small ocean wave. He looked up and turned around to find himself surround by four intimidating women, unlike any he had ever seen. They were clearly warriors of some sort, but also obvious was that they were not from around here. “Who are you? How’d you get past security?”



None of the women said anything. The tall woman, who was easily seven-feet tall, grunted as she turned her back towards him and walked away. The women seemed to take that as an order... an order that he was not going to like. Two of the women grabbed him by his arms, tugging at each end so hard, he was afraid that they were about to rip his arms out of their sockets. The wild looking woman stood in front of him, showing off her rusty-steel claws that looked to be soldered onto her hands. She was like the female Freddy Krueger, and she was getting uncomfortably close to him.



* * * *



Barda turned away so she could pay more attention doing what they had come to do. The girls could have their fun with their pray; they didn’t have to answer directly to Granny Goodness OR Lord Darkseid. As she walked away, she saw, from the corner of her eye, their fun-time ended disappointingly early when Mad Harriet used her claws to slice the old man’s throat open. The corpse collapsed to the ground like dead meat.



Leave it to Harriet to find the messiest and quickest way to kill someone. Barda had hoped that Mad Harriet would have taken more time with her victim so all three of them would not hound her like annoyingly curious children while completing her task. Her hope would go unrealized as she walked towards a touch-screen computer at the opposite end of the room. From her belt, she pulled out a palm size device that was given to her by Darkseid, himself.



As she prepared to activate the device, she could hear Mad Harriet marvel at her handiwork. “Look at all the blood!”



“These humans are disappointingly fragile,” Stompa grunted. She and her two comrades gave up trying to find any more entertainment from the death of the human. They went over to Barda to see what she was up to. “Tell us again, why we’re here?”



“To collect geographical information of this planet for Lord Darkseid,” Barda answered.



“Was this really the only place we can find that information? I was really hoping for a better workout than this,” Lashina grumbled.



“Actually, nearly everyone on this planet has one of these primitive devices than can access the information.”



The three women were disappointed in hearing this. If everyone had one these devices, they could have gone somewhere where there were more victims for them to have fun with, or at least someone who could give them more of a challenge. “Why bring us here then? You’re not getting soft on us, are you?”



The accusation did not settle well with Barda, but there was no reason to start a fight over it. In a way, she could understand their restlessness; it had been awhile since they had a real challenge on their hand. These women were bred for violence; they fed off it like an unquenchable addiction. “This location was chosen to pass on a message to someone who calls himself, Superman.”



She placed the device by the computer, which instantly took it over. A web browser appeared on the screen as the smart device began pulling information from something the earthlings called a ‘world-wide-web’. The speed that the device searched through this supposed invisible information storage unit was impressive, even to someone as unlearned as Barda. She could care less about technology and how it works; she was a warrior. The way of the sword was the only thing she cared to know.



“Superman?” Stompa scoffed. “Men are such neanderthals. I’ve never seen any male who could live up to such a title.”



Lashina’s reaction was quite the opposite, but still totally in character. “Hmmm, sounds sexy. When do we get to meet this hunk?”



“When we’re told to do so, and NOT before,” Barda said firmly, starting to regret telling the ladies about him. Now, they were going to grow impatient and harder to control. She had to admit; she, too, was curious about this Superman. She had never seen any individual getting the dark lord’s fullest attention like this. Instead of just coming to this planet and wiping out all of these people, he was busy crafting an articulate plan that was ultimately wrapped around this one person. What could possibly be so special about this one man?



The devices broke its connection to the computer and lit up as to announce that it had completed its part of the mission. She picked it up and put it back into the small compartment in her golden belt. “Okay ladies, time to return home.”



* * * *



Lounging around in his bath robe, Clark was flipping sitting on the foot of the bed, surfing through the two dozen channels that their television had access to. He was looking for the morning news while Lois was in the shower. He didn’t know if it was just bad timing, or what, but everytime he flipped to a new channel, they were in the middle of a commercial break and he had to wait until the end to find out what channel it was and what was on. The hotel, as luxurious as it was, did not have a channel guide, and the television was a generation or two behind modern times; there was no green-lettered channel display posted anywhere on the screen.



As he waited for the current series of commercials to end, he lessened his idleness by looking towards the bathroom door which was open just a crack. He could hear the shower running at full force, as the steams trickled out of the open door. She was humming another seventies tunes, enjoying her hot, steamy and refreshing shower.



Clark inquisitively wondered how she could tolerate such hot showers. He had walked into the bathroom while she showered one time, and the entire bathroom was full of white. If he had not had super sight, he doubted that he would be able to see anything at all. She almost had the faucet turned all the way up, which was the hottest setting possible. The hot water did not bother him, but he just preferred his showers to be a little more on the milder side. How someone like her could stand such scalding hot water pricking at every inch of her skin was bewildering, but amusing to contemplate none-the-less.



Finally, the commercials came to an end, and the local news came on. A close-up of the lovely burnet reporter appeared on the screen at screen-left, as a small picture-in-picture box appeared at the upper right hand corner, displaying a graphic for the current story being reported on. What unnerved Clark to his bones was that the image was of a skyscraper, and at the bottom of the box were the words, ‘Murder at S.T.A.R. Labs’.



He had no doubt who this story was going to be about, and his heart felt like someone had taken hold of it and squeezing it until it would explode. It was too horrible to think about. “Lois!”



“Yeah!” He shouted over the roaring of the water.



“Come here, quick!”



The report had already started as Lois came rushing out of the bathroom, with a white towel wrapped around her body as water dripped profusely from her. “S.T.A.R Lab was the scene of a gruesome murder, yesterday, in Metropolis. Professor Emil Hamilton was found lying in a pool of his own blood late last night. No one is certain how the intruder got past all the security check points. Lieutenant Dan Turpin of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit is investigating this strange murder, but has declined to give any comments at this time. S.T.A.R Labs is famous for working side-by-side with the Man of Steel, Superman, on countless endeavors. Rumors are spreading like wild fire that the Professor’s relationship with Superman may have played a key role in the killer’s motive.”



Clark turned off the television, his worst fear now realized. He could not shake the feeling of guilt that had wrapped around him. It was his fault that the good professor died. “She right... this was a message for me.”



Lois was stunned by this news as well. She was quite fond of the Professor. Sure, he had been a little neurotic, but he was a very kind soul, not deserving this sort of ending. “How do we know this wasn’t just some act of random violence?”



“The laboratory has more security than the White House; a random killer could never reach Professor Hamilton in his lab.”



She was starting to know him well enough to be able to guess what he was thinking. She had about a fifty percent accuracy in guessing, and after they tied the knot and spent a few more years together, that percentage should go up to a eighty or ninety. In this case, there was no chance mistaking what was on his mind. “You think this is it, Don’t you? You think this may be the beginning of the invasion?”



She knew the whole story about Darkseid and his threat to this planet. If they were going to spend the rest of their lives together, he wanted no secrets between them. They were a team, now; secrets would only destroy them both. As hard as it was to tell her, he told her about the incident at his Fortress of Solitude. From the look in her eyes, he could tell that she sensed his fear.



For the first time in his life, he was afraid. He had faced a few overwhelming odds in his time, but he had never experienced fear in those uphill battles. Darkseid was a different story, altogether. He experienced his strength, first hand, at his fortress. Everything he had heard about him was true; there was no greater evil in all the galaxy. The way, this dark ‘god’ had utterly humiliated him at the fortress, made him question his ability to save the Earth from the invasion. All the powers that were granted to him by the radiation of the yellow sun, and none of them made a lick of difference against the powers of Darkseid. How could he not be afraid under these circumstances?



Clark’s silence was all the answer Lois needed. “I’ll go pack our bags.”

 

Another Chapter ! Let me know how you're enjoying the story so far!


Chapter 4



Lieutenant Inspector Dan Turpin felt the pinch of arthritis in his knees flare up. He was getting to old for this line of work. Perhaps it was more the fact that he’s never been busier in his life. After the demise of the Intergang, he had naturally assumed that things would get better in Metropolis, not worse. Moral was at an all-time low, and crime was at an all-time high. There was no explanation for it; the people in this mega city have seemed to embrace hatred and violence. They were embracing the darkness like never before.



Of all the crimes that he had investigating, this had to be one of the most brutal acts of violence he could ever remember. Whoever did this to poor Professor Hamilton, had no intentions in hiding the hideous act. Whoever was responsible for this had to get a thrill out of spilling blood. By the time they found the body, it was almost completely drained of blood. The throat was shredded like a sheet of paper gone through a paper shredder. He was lucky that he had a strong stomach, a few of his men had to race to the bathroom and spill their lunches at the first sight of the crime scene. He also noticed that Maggs, or Captain Maggie Sawyer, was trying particularly hard not to look in the direction of the body.



Now, twenty-four hours after the crime scene was first discovered, the body was removed, but the mess that was left behind was still a pretty gruesome sight. With no clues turning up as to who might be responsible, the investigation was moving at snail pace. They had no choice but search the laboratory over and over again for any sort of clue that might explain what had led up to the professor’s death.



He, Maggie and few of their M.S.C.U agents were back at the laboratory, trying to put this very confusing puzzle together. There was no report of any strange visitors to the lab, or forced entries anywhere in the building. It was almost as if a ghost was responsible for all of this. In all of his long career, he had never seen a crime so cleanly committed, where not even a strain of hair was left behind. Despite how things currently appeared, he refused to allow this mystery to go unsolved.



Walking around in the laboratory, he was searching for anything that might be out of place or might give him a hint as to the motive to this crime. Frustration was starting to burrow into his heart. He found himself grumbling to himself; it may have made him look a little mentally unstable to his agents, but it was the only way he knew to keep himself from erupting in a terrible temper tantrum. Then, he would most assuredly look crazy.



After searching one of the handful of tables in the laboratory, he turned around to find Superman standing in the center of the laboratory. “There you are! Where’ve you been?”



“My apologies for my long absence, Lieutenant Turpin. Even I need time to reenergize from time to time,” he replied mildly.



Turpin grunted, his sour mood becoming even more apparent. “Yeah, while you’re vacationing, I’m stuck here, alone, struggling to keep up with all the crimes in Metropolis.”



Superman knew him well enough to know that today was just another one of his many petulant days. He ignored the subtle accusation, which even in his foul mood, Turpin realized he truly didn’t really mean. The ‘Big Boy-Scout’ had an uncanny ability to see through emotions and outward appearances to see the real person within people.



“Have you uncovered anything within the last twenty-four hours?”



“You think I’d still be here if we had?” Turpin grunted sourly. He was feeling like an incompetent detective; it embarrassed him to be stonewalled in such a manner. He turned away from him when a sudden thought came to him, causing him to swing back around towards him. “Say, you have the power of super vision. You should be telling me if there’s anything out-of-place here.”



Superman gave the laboratory a good look-around. Turpin could only imagine what the world looked like through his eyes, especially when he could see through solid materials. He wished he could have that power; his job would be a hundred times easier if he had the eyes of an eagle and could see everything that everyone else couldn’t. As he finished his quick glance over, he had to admit coming to the same, uneventful results. “I see nothing unusual.”



Satisfied to have his job performance reaffirmed, his rash behavior lightened up a bit. “I WILL tell you what we do have. The autopsy report came back, and showed that both of the professor’s arms were nearly dislocated, as if someone had used him in a tug-of-war match. Both arms were bruised, with 7 or eight spots on each arm. That tells me that we’re looking at three people responsible. We have one person holding the right arm, one holding the left, and one who’s actually committing the murder.”



“I see,” Superman responded. “If I may ask, how did the professor die?”



Turpin was afraid he was going to ask that. The image of the corpse was horrifying. He did not enjoy recalling the gruesome details of the crime scene as it was when he first arrived. It was something he would never forget. “Well, his throat was slashed into ribbons, so it was not a single blade knife and sword. It looked like a wild animal’s claw.”



Turpin shook his head. “I can’t help but see the similarities between this and the massacre we investigated eight months ago. You were there; you know what I’m talking about. All the leaders of the Intergang were found mutilated in an old warehouse. A few of them had slash marks as if Freddy Krueger had gone loco on them. I suspect the same weapon was used here.”



Superman nodded, as if he would agree with his logic. Turpin was beginning to suspect another rogue alien involvement, but the Man-in-Blue was keeping his lips sealed if he knew anything. Instead of adding any knowledge he may have had, he changed subjects. “How about the security cameras; what did they pick up?”



“Captain Sawyer is viewing the footage now. We had to contact the judge, who’s vacationing in the Bahamas, to obtain the warrant. That’s why we’re only just getting to the security video now.” Turpin responded, trying to keep his anger in check. That was one of the reasons he was so sour. It shouldn’t have taken so long to obtain a warrant under these circumstances. The judge and the politicians were too wrapped up in red tape and politics that they’ve lost the compassion towards the innocent and suffering... yet another example how people were losing their humanity. “Oh, by the way, I never did thank you for saving my bacon a week ago. What’s that now... ten times?”



Superman grinned. “Saving lives is what I do, Lieutenant. No thank’s necessary.”



“Still, I’m gonna find a way to save your life for once.”



“Dan!” Sawyer’s voice preceded her running into the laboratory with a DVD and a hard briefcase in her hands. “I think you should see this; the security cameras picked up our perpetrators.”



Turpin’s attitude shifted on a dime upon this news. It was the first good news he would have had in two days. “Let’s see it, then!”



Maggie placed the hard-shell ‘brief-case’ onto the table. She flipped the two switches, and before they eyes the brief case became a portable television with a built in DVD player. She inserted the disk into the slot, and the screen displayed the black-and-white security footage. They watched as Professor Hamilton was busy at work. Everything seemed perfectly normal, until what looked like a tunnel of light formed out of thin air.



“Pause that!” Turpin ordered. Maggie, annoyed having to pause the video right before the important part, did as instructed. “What’s that light?”



Superman stood there stone-faced. He knew exactly what they were looking at. “A Boom Tunnel.”



“A wha—?”



“A Boom Tunnel. It is an alien technology that creates artificial worm holes for traveling long distances through the galaxy. I believe it is how the Intergang was able to disappear without a trace and elude capture for as long as they had.”



“Great, so we have alien technology getting into the hands of teenaged hoodlums. That’s the last thing I wanted to hear.” The thought of alien weapons finding their way into the hands of criminals was aggravating, to put it mildly. How was he supposed to do his job when the bad guys were better armed? “You’re telling me that the Intergang was just a foreshadow for something worse?”



“Do you gentlemen want to see the perpetrators or not?” Captain Saywer said, quickly getting impatient. She could care less about the technology used; what she was waiting to show them was much more important than all of that.



Turpin nodded, and she unpaused the video. They continued to watch as four armored female warriors walked out of the ‘Boom Tunnel’. “So, there were four of them, not three,” Tuprin muttered to himself.



He continued to watch as three of the women immediately attacked the professor, in exactly the manner he imagined it going down. Two of the women were playing tug-of-war with his arms, until finally an insane looking woman used some kind of razor-claw glove, on her hand, to slash his throat. “These women look like they can put Xena to shame. I supposed these alien women were the force behind the Intergang, all this time, then?”



“I do not think so,” Superman said, narrowing his eyes as he stared at the screen. “If I am correct, then they are just as much as pawns as the Intergang were. If that is true, then...”



Turpin took the long pause as only a brief interruption of thought, but it wasn’t long before he realized that he was not planning on finishing that comment out loud. “If that’s true, then... what?”



Superman gave him a grave look that was unlike any look that he had ever seen. Now, Turpin regretted having asked him to finish that statement at all. “Then Metropolis may need to prepare for the battle of Armageddon to come to its front door.”



Turpin was about to ask for clarity on that statement, not at all liking what he was implying, but Sawyer was again growing impatient, because neither man was seeing the bigger picture. “Dan, Superman may be not be exaggerating as you may be thinking. Have either of you noticed where the fourth woman was doing during the murder?”



Both men shifted their sights to the upper side of the screen where the tall woman, who—based on being the only one wearing an elegant, warrior’s helmet—was the leader of this rouge, female clan, was standing in front of the only desktop computer in the lab. “Holy crap! She WAS accessing the computer.”



“Any idea what information they were after?” Superman asked.



Sawyer’s eyes were deadly serious as she looked towards him. “We can’t be completely certain, but based on what was on the screen when we first accessed that desktop was...”



“Geographical information of Earth,” Turpin interrupted, half in shock and not meaning to interrupt his partner. “To be more precise, the location of all of earth’s super volcanoes, like—and including—the one underneath Yellowstone National Park. If these women are hostile forces from another galaxy, it’s a fair bet that they acquired this information for a reason. If just one of these volcanoes erupts, three quarters of the population of the earth will die in either a nuclear winter, or through famine. God knows what would happen if they tried to erupt two or more of these monsters.”



Superman now saw the serious of this development. There was no doubt that Superman had the full picture now at what the situation was, even more so than Turpin or Mags. Having studied everything about planet earth during his training period with his father, Jor-El, he knew exactly what would happen to the Earth. “If more than one super volcano erupted at the same time, than that, then every fault line underneath the earth will unravel, and the planet would explode.”

 

Chapter 5



“Wow, that’s some rock!” Cat Grant said, sounding less genuine than usual. Lois never cared for Cat Grant in the least. The woman was haughty like no one she had ever seen. If something good was to happen, if it didn’t happen to her, then it was a grave injustice. She was probably the most disliked reporter at the Daily Planet, but there was no denying her journalistic skills. For some reason, she seemed to become even more competitive when it came to Lois. She may be new to the Daily Planet, but she acted like everyone should worship the ground she walked on. She acted like she was the greatest reporter in the Daily Planet. It was clear that she was jealous of her.



She had no intentions of informing anyone, let alone Cat, of this development. It was Jimmy who spotted the ring and asked, “Is that an engagement ring?” He just blurted out the question, and the next thing she knew, she had everyone clamoring around her to get a look at the ring and to congratulate her. No doubt, that when Cat saw Lois getting all this attention, she thought there might be a report that she could steal from her. She had tried to steal a few stories from her, in the past, until Lois put her in her place. When she found out that all this commotion was about her engagement, she couldn’t hide the disappointment. Not only was there no story for her to try to steal, but all the attention on the floor had been taken away from her and given to Lois.



“Thanks,” Lois replied wryly.



“So, you’re getting married... to Clark Kent, of all people. That’s... great.”



“Yeah, to Clark Kent! You got a problem with that?” Lois growled. Cat’s presence was quickly grating on her nerves.



“No, not at all,” she replied defensively. “If you want to settle for someone like Clark Kent, then who am I to judge.”



Lois was fuming; she was ready to claw her eyes out. Every time she opened her mouth, she found a way to insult her. She had down to an art. “Settle? I’ll show you ‘settle’!”



Before the women came to blows, Clark came walking by. It wouldn’t have surprised Lois if Clark had overheard the conversation all the way from S.T.A.R Labs with his super hearing, and raced back before they could go at it. It would be just like him to prevent her from decking this blond-haired bimbo into next week. It was also one of the traits she loved about him.



Seeing Lois’ ‘knight in shining armor’, Cat decided it was time to take her leave. As she departed, she gave him a good, seductive glance over. Clark’s back was turned towards her, so he never saw her looking him over, but Lois did. She knew that Cat had no personal interest in him. Lois could read it in her eyes; Cat was merely interest in him because he belonged to her. If she even thought about trying to make a move on her man...



“Am I missing something?” Clark asked, looking clueless.



“Hey, Mr. Kent! Have you found a best man yet? If not, my schedule is open!” Jimmy greeted enthusiastically.



The young man came at him so quickly; Clark hadn’t had the time to collect himself. “Uh, I’ve haven’t given it much thought to that, yet. If everyone will excuse Lois and I for a second, I’ve need to talk to her in private for second.”



Everyone chuckled as they dispersed to go their separate ways. Lois followed Clark away from all the desks to a remote corner of the floor where they’d be able to have some privacy. Calmed down from her interaction with Cat Grant, Lois was ready to hear the grim report. “So, what did you find?”



Clark let out a sigh as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “It wasn’t pretty. I think it’s safe to say that it was a message for me.”



“From Darkseid?”



Clark sighed as he nodded. She could sense the anxiousness that was growing. For the first time she could remember, he was actually afraid. Darkseid had him this unnerved, and she couldn’t help but be nervous herself. Did he have any chance at all at defeating Darkseid when the time arrived? Somehow, she feared that her prayers, that he’ll never come to Earth, were going to go unheard. They were just about to start their lives together; she didn’t want to lose him now. “They didn’t even need to kill him; whoever he sent was only here to gather information. He went out of his way to make sure the Professor was killed.”



“Any idea what kind of information he wanted?”



Clark’s face grew even dimmer. Whatever it was, this was not going to be good. “Lieutenant Inspector Turpin and I believe that he might have been looking for means to destroy the planet. He found the locations of every super volcano on the planet.”



“Wait, ‘EVERY’? You mean the one in Yellowstone National Park isn’t the only one?”



“There’re handfuls across the globe. I’m going to have to find a way to keep my eye on all of them.”



“Kent, Lane, meet me in my office!” Perry’s gruffly voice called out from his office, all the way across the building. His voice was so strong, you could hear from every corner of the floor. It was impossible to tell if the editor-in-chief, Perry White, was in a good mood or not; he always sounded mad. He was one of those people that always seemed to be in a foul mood.



The two reporters made their way past all the cubicals and into the chief’s office. Perry was at his desk with several stories from other reporters on his desk. His eyes peeked up at them as they entered the office. “What’s up, chief? You wanted to see us?” Lois asked.



Perry gave them his full attention as his nostrils flared. “You know, you two are the best damn reporters I have ever seen, so I’ve... overlooked... the no-fraternizing policy. Now, you pull this stunt on me?” He pounded his fist on the desk before rolling his chair back and standing to his feet.



Clark and Lois were trying to keep straight faces, but neither of them was expecting this kind of response. They weren’t expecting to get ANY reaction from him; he was the type of person to congratulate someone with only a grunt. What could possibly be bothering their boss to get on their case for something like this?

“I’ve held my tongue for a long time, and for man like me, you know that’s not easy; but I can’t keep silent any longer. I have to get this off my chest. I’ve only got one thing to say to the both of you.” Perry walked around his desk to stand before the two reporters.



Outside the office, Cat Grant was keeping her distance from the doorway, but was staying close enough to listen into the conversation. The moment she heard Perry start to rip into them, she stealthily positioned herself to be able to listen in and hope to get a new weapon to use against Lois Lane. She would do anything it took to get ahead in the game. If Lois Lane was going to get chewed out, she wanted to know about it.



Perry stared down bother of them before he finally let them have it. “It’s about damn time!”



With that, Cat lost all interest in the conversation and walked off. As for Clark and Lois, not only was this welcomed relief, but also a surprise. Perry never made a fuss over any of his staff’s personal good news. Was he possessed or something?



“If things hadn’t worked out between you two, I would have lost both of my best reporters. You have no idea the risk I was taking by overlooking that policy. If you two would have broken up, I would have killed the both of you!” Perry said, exposing his lack of a sense of humor. “Anyway, congratulations, but now it’s time to get back to business.”



Perry went back to his desk and sat down. “I have stories that I want you two to cover.”



“Chief, if it’s okay with you, Lois and I would like to work together on the murder at S.T.A.R. Labs story. We kind of have a personal interest in it.”



Perry thought about it for a few second. It really wasn’t a big issue for him, and with these two being his best reporters, he had no problem allowing them to choose their story. “Okay, the story is yours.”



“Uh... excuse me?” Jimmy peered his head into the office.



“What is it, Olson?” The chief snapped, hating having his meetings interupted.



“I’ve got an important message for Ms. Lane from her father,” the young man proved oblivious to the tone in Perry’s voice which suggested for him to come back later.



“What is it, Jimmy?” Lois asked, knowing her father well enough to know that he probably stressed this message as urgent to urge the boy to interrupt this kind of meeting. Odds are, the message was not that important, and that he was just using his status as General of the U.S. Army around to intimidate the young man.



“Your father’s in the city, and he wants to have lunch with you and Clark.”



It was just like her father to put Jimmy in the line of fire for a message that could have waited a few more minutes. Now that damage was done, there was another issue at hand more pressing. “I suppose now is as good of a time as any to tell him.”



Perry rolled his eyes. “Is this a social club or something? Everyone out of my office!”

 

Chapter 6



Everyone seemed to be walking on egg shells to avoid getting into a fight. Lois’s father, General Samuel Lane, was doing his best not to put down her relationship with Clark; and they were trying not to provoke the General on countless number of topics that would spark his dislike of Clark. He was not a big fan of his daughter dating Clark Kent. To him, Clark was no good for his daughter. Not only was he a part of the liberal media, but everything about him cried ‘WIMP’. The boy had no backbone; he was clumsy, socially awkward, and the complete opposite of what he wanted for his daughter. After several arguments on the matter, Lois had finally managed to get him to agree to stop giving them a hard time.



As they started eating their lunch, they ended up having very little to talk about. All the taboo topics made it nearly impossible to strike up a conversation. They had finished their entrees and were near the end of their dessert. Lois had struggle through this whole awkward meal to find the right time to tell his father. She was careful not to allow her father see the ring on her finger, but time was now running out to tell him. The waitress had just delivered the check, seeing most of the dessert dishes cleaned off.



Finally, Lois had worked up the temerity to update her father with the current situation. “Dad, there’s something we need to talk to you about.”



General Lane nodded as wiped his lips with his napkin and gently placed it on the table. “I’m listening.”



“We can’t keep on avoiding a discussion about my relationship with Clark. We...”



“I’m not going to change my mind about this,” he replied coldly. “With all due respect to you, Mr. Kent, I don’t approve of this relationship. I feel you’re not the right man for my daughter.”



Lois felt her anger boil over. She hated how he put Clark down so brazenly right in front of his face. Of course, Clark could easily put her father in place, but he was willing to endure the embarrassment of his put downs. That was the kind of man he was, Lois wished her father knew the restraint and inner strength that he’s been displaying all these months. “How dare you, dad! You may be my father, but I’m a fully grown business women, capable of making my own choices. I know the type of man I want and need better than you, and that man is Clark Kent.”



“You’re right, I can’t make your decisions for you,” General Lane growled, “but I can at least try to make you see reason. There are so many men out there...”



“Face it; you’ll never be happy unless I marry a handsome Army captain. To you, everyone else is no good for me.”



“Yes, because I can be assured that you’d be marrying an honorable man, who loves this country!”



“Not to mention someone who’s a conservative,” Lois snapped. “Dad, I’m not going to tell you if I’m conservative or liberal; that shouldn’t matter to you. Just because I work for an industry that may seem to you as mostly liberal, doesn’t mean I am one, neither does it mean that I’m not. You’re so stuck up on titles; maybe titles are not the most important thing to me.”



“That’s border-line, un-American, young girl!” General Lane’s face started turning red.



Clark remained silent; this argument was between Lois and her father. At this point, he was there merely for support. If he was ever to win over his respect, he could not afford to appear to be turning the general’s daughter against him. If the General ever thought that, there would be no hope of ever getting it.



“Dad, when will you stop thinking of me a supporter of a political party, and start thinking of me as a daughter?” Lois slammed her hands on the table top. “My relationship with Clark has nothing to do with politics! If I want to marry Clark Kent, isn’t that my decision!”



Those words stunned the General. It caused him to look down at her hand to see the engagement ring around her finger. “Marry? You two are engaged! This...this...this is unacceptable!”



Lois jumped out of her seat, startling the customers in the tables nearby. “I should have expected this reaction from you!”



“If you expect me to give you my blessing to this catastrophe-waiting-to-happen, then you can forget it. I will not be a part of this travesty!”



Lois was so infuriated; she could no longer raise her voice. Lois couldn’t remember ever being so mad at her father as she was at this moment. This was beyond forgivable. This was the most hurtful thing her father had ever done. “So you won’t even give me away. You’re eldest daughter...her first and only marriage...and you’re not going to be there! Fine! Then stay out of my life...PERMENANTLY!”



Lois shoved her chair so hard, that it tipped over. She stormed out of the restaurant before Clark had the chance to stop. “Lois, wait!”



Clark jumped out of his seat and ran after her. After leaping out of the restaurant, he found Lois storming down the sidewalk, nearly elbowing people out of her way, muttering to herself. “Why the hell should I care what my father thinks? He’s just the stubborn S.O.B. he’s always been. I’m through with him!”



“Lois, will you wait! Let’s talk about this!” Clark said, walking quickly, but not willing to use his speed with this many eyes being drawn in their direction by Lois’s muttering to herself.



“I’m done talking about this! I want him out of my life...for good!”



“Lois, you don’t mean that,” Clark said, finally catching up to her and trying to calm her down. It was really hard to talk to her when she was angry, and he had never seen her like this before.



“Like hell, I don’t!”



She didn’t mean to snap at Clark, but her father had a knack for riling her up. They’ve always had a rocky relationship, but never this bad. She could not explain why he was acting like this towards Clark. Sure, if her father knew that Clark was Superman, she would have expected this kind of reaction. No matter how hard she tried, she just could not understand that man; right now, she no longer cared to try.



Even through the talk of all the people she had put between her and the restaurant, she could still hear the gruff, authoritative voice of her father calling out to her. “Lois! Stop!”



She ignored his calls, hoping he would get the hint and leave them alone. If he was going to be like this, then he could just stay out of their lives. They were going to get married, whether they had his blessing or not. She refused to be manipulated by him; she always had. He continuously treated her like one of his military men; they never had a father-daughter relationship. That’s all she wanted, but she could not break through that military shell he’d wrapped himself into.



As she stormed down the sidewalk, with Clark walking quickly to keep up with her, the sun light began to fade as if a solar eclipse was being fast forwarded. She looked up, as did Clark and everyone standing in the streets of Metropolis and everyone near a window. The sky had become a pinkish-red, and the yellow sun was fading into a very dark-red color.



This development quickly caused panic to take hold of many in the city. It was impossible not to be unnerved by the blood-like sun; it was beyond a typical solar flare. It was an unwelcomed interruption of normalcy; something that could not be logically explained. It was easy to fall into fear when something could not be explained like this.



“What in the world?” Lois’ anger towards her father vanished instantly. Curiosity followed along with an internal warning. Call them her female instincts, if you will, but they were blaring a warning to her soul. This had disaster written all over it. Her instincts had never failed her before; they were what made her the best reporter in Metropolis. Like all the times before, they would be proven right once again.



A massive rock, engulfed in intense flames fell from the sky. It left a trail of white smoke across the red sky until it pierced through the upper levels of a tall tower. A giant explosion rocked the city, as flames shot up the tower. Even from their safe distance, they could see concrete and metal spray out in all directions among the burning debris. The pointed tip of the tower started to tip over until gravity was ready to take over. The upper levels of the tower were now falling down the side of the tower.



While this was going on, more meteors entered the atmosphere. The panicked masses became hysteric, and started running for the lives. All common sense had vanished as fear took dominance in most of the people. The meteors began to rip through the city, starting fires, destroying towers and buildings. The meteor show came so quickly, no one had any time to prepare. Clark was looking for somewhere to change when everyone around him started screaming and running. A quick look up and he saw a large meteor, about six feet in diameter, coming right towards them. Doing a quick, mental calculation of its trajectory, he used his eyes to follow its eventual path. Turning around, he saw General Lane looking up in the skies in the opposite direction. The meteor was heading straight for him.



“Dad!” Lois screamed.



General Lane turned around to see the meteor coming straight for him at top speed. It was coming at him too fast for him to escape the destruction that the burning piece of space rock was going to cause. It was coming too fast for even Clark to find hiding place to rip his suit off and appear as Superman.



Clark had no choice but use his super speed to get to the General in time. The world seemed to slow down as he took off. The only thing that seemed not to slow down was the meteor. It was a super-speed race to the finish, with the general’s life on the line. The last thing he was worried about was revealing his secret identity to the general. There was no avoiding that, now.



Clark narrowly won the race with the Meteor, with just enough time to use his body as a shield. Upon impact, a minor explosion sent searing, hot flames and space debris shattering in all directions. A thick, suffocating, grey smoke engulfed the area, bringing the visibility level down to next to nothing. When the flames subsided, Lois ventured to run into the smoke to see if her father was alright. She was the only one brave enough to run into the chaos instead of running from. At least, Clark would now be able to fully ‘transform’ into Superman without anyone seeing.



The first thing she was able to see through the smoke was the yellow ‘S’ insignia on top of red. Clark was still standing; the entire back of his suit had been burnt off, leaving him standing mostly in his Superman outfit, along with large, burnt, and raggedy shreds of his grey business suit. He was leaning forward, holding onto her father, who was covered in soot. His green military uniform was badly charred, as he was on the brink of collapsing into unconsciousness. Even through the grey dust on his face, she instantly could see burn marks. He was badly burned in the ordeal and in desperate need of medical attention.



“Dad!” Lois cried running to his aid as Clark gently helped the General to sit down. He was too incoherent to respond, and the moment he was sitting down, he was ready to completely collapse. “I’ll take care of him. You’ve got work to do.”



“Right,” Clark said, stepping back so Lois could step in and take over taking care of her father. It was quite easy to rip off the remains of his suit; he did it in three large pieces. Now standing there in his Superman suit, he was ready to take flight and try to reflect some of the large meteors away from the city. As he prepared to take flight, a tickle in the back of his throat caused an unintentional coughing reflex. He let out a couple of soft coughs, which quickly grabbed Lois’ attention. For as long as she knew him, she had never once heard him cough or sneeze. She couldn’t remember one time when Clark ever came down sick. The two soft coughs was more than enough for her to get concerned.



Appearing to be unaware of Lois’ concerns, he leaped into the air and made his way above the city of Metropolis. In rout, he paused a few times to wind-up and punch approaching meteors, turning the burning space rocks into burning fragments. He had to do this two more times before he saw one last meteor coming towards Metropolis. This one was the mother of all meteorites; it was large enough that it could have the same impact as that of a nuclear bomb set off in the heart of the city.



Letting out another cough, and then a deep breath, he took off like a speeding-bullet towards the monstrous meteor. He pushed himself to go as fast as he could, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was keeping him from reaching his top speed. He couldn’t explain it, but it was a nagging feeling that would not go away. To make up for it, he released his heat beams from his eyes, unleashing as much power as he could. That would at least slow the meteor down so less collateral damage occurred. There was no getting around it; the pieces that will come off this space rock will cause significant damage, but it would pale in comparison to the damage it would cause as one massive rock.



He could feel the heat of the flames engulfing the massive rock as he approached. He cut off his heat beams as he went in for the kill. With his two fists out in front of him, he spun himself rapidly around like a bit in an electronic drill. For all intent and purpose, that was the role he was going for. He collided with it right in the heart of the beast, drilling himself into the rock. With his impact with it combined with his drilling action, the massive rock exploded, shattering dozens of smaller rocks in all directions.



The explosion threw him back down towards the city. He was falling faster than he had been able to achieve on the way up to the meteor and faster than the meteor on its way to Metropolis. Surrounded by white smoke, people on the streets of Metropolis thought he was another meteor coming its way down to the city. Fortunately, he was going to hit in the middle of a road, avoiding all buildings in the process. He managed to gain some control of his descent; it was just enough to slightly soften his collision into the street.



His impact still caused massive shockwave which shattered windows, and flipped parallel-parked cars onto their sides. It took a few seconds for things to calm down. Dust rose from the crater as onlookers ventured to get closer. Superman stumbled onto his feet as a quick wave of dizziness did a hit and run on him. Once it disappeared, he stepped up, out of the ditch that he had inadvertently made and looked to the sky. Letting out another soft cough, he saw no other Meteors in the sky, yet the sun remained red as blood. It was just as he feared; the sun changing colors had nothing to do with the meteor shower, which meant that these two ‘separate events’ were related and emanated from the same source: Darkseid.

 

Chapter 7



After another sneeze, the nurse was adamant that Clark wore a breath mask. He had no choice but to oblige if he wanted to stay with Lois to visit her father in the hospital. Since the sun had turned red, his health had steadily declined. He was doing his best to hold back his sneezes and coughs as much as he could. If he couldn’t get it under control soon, he had a feeling the nurse would return to kick him out of the hospital. The last thing the doctors want was someone with a disease contaminating the sanitation of the hospital.



General Lane was lying in his bed, doped up with morphine for the pain. He was out like a light. His burns had been treated and carefully wrapped in white gauze. As a standard procedure, they had oxygen being pumped into his lungs. Other than that, he was in stable condition.



Lois sat by her father’s bad, having been there for most of the day. The past twenty-four hours had gone by like a whirlwind. Lois had been spending most of that time with him. The current rift between them was put on the backburner for awhile. Who knows, maybe this whole incident will mellow him out, a bit.



“I contacted Lucy, while you were out,” Lois said, taking hold of Clark’s hand as he offered it to her. “She wants to take time off of school and come and visit my father in the hospital.”



Clark’s voice was slightly muffled through the breath mask. “I think it would be safer for her if she avoided Metropolis, even if she could get into the city.” Because of the meteor shower, the city was under a state of emergency. All transportation in and out of the city had come to a halt. Even now, they could hear the sirens from ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars, outside, from all directions. They could also smell the smoke from all the fires throughout the city. This was Metropolis’ nine-eleven. The hospitals were all filling up to their maximum capacity, as every doctor and nurse in the city were being called in. Thousands of people had probably just died. In all this chaos, the chances of Lucy getting into the city were next to nothing.



However, that could be a good thing. It was becoming more evident that Metropolis was going to be ground zero for Darkseid’s invasion. While there would be no safe place on planet earth, Metropolis would be by far the worst place to be right now.



Clark took his hand back from Lois, just in time, to cover his breath mask with both hands as he let out another sneeze. He probably didn’t need to; his breath mask was probably more than enough, but the act of covering his nose and mouth was purely reflex. This time, Lois looked up at him with a growing concerned look on her face. “For as long as I’ve known you, I’ve never once seen you get sick.”



“On the way here, I stopped off in Smallville to pick up a specially designed suit. It’s not your typical red, blue and yellow suit, but its slowing down my body’s degeneration, for now.”



Lois didn’t move her eyes from him. She had the look of someone who was debating whether to say something or not. It looked like something she had been pondering for a long time, but could not longer hold back. “Tell me the truth... is there any hope of stopping Darkseid.”



He put a hand on her shoulder. “I will not allow him to have this world. I will do everything in my powers to stop him.”

That didn’t ease her concerns very much. She had a growing fear that he suspected he couldn’t win, and was not telling her. Seeing that Darkseid was able to turn their sun red, she began to fear, herself, that Clark could be a little over his head. “Can you also promise that you’ll survive this ordeal? I would feel much better if you had help from someone like Batman or Wonder Woman. On the other hand, forget Wonder Woman.”



Clark managed a smirk behind his mask. Lois was not too fond of Diana. The Amazonian was considered drop-dead gorgeous by any sane man. Lois could not help but get jealous anytime the idea crossed her mind of him working together. She had never seen her in person, but everything she’s heard about her was more than enough to spark that tinge of jealousness. “No, this is my problem to solve. I will not put anyone else in danger because of me.”



Lois noticed that he was not answering her original question, and that unnerved her even further. She knew that he had once said that he would give his life to keep this planet safe, but deep down inside, she never really took that literately. Now, for some reason, she sensed that she had to take that line much more seriously.



* * * *



Metropolis was hurting; the meteor storm was like a knife between the ribs. It had seen more than its share of horrific events the past two years; it was long due for a break from the chaos. Somehow, though, Dan Turpin didn’t think a break was on the horizon.



Everything was chaos since the meteor shower. The city was still reeling over the devastation. Everyone in the MSCU, MPD, MFD, and the medical fields would be earning lots of overtime today and this week.



He never thought he would never see something like this with his own eyes. Never, could he imagine a catastrophe like this would ever hit home like this. Yes, he has seen them before, but through special reports on the news... never in his back yard, and especially not a meteor shower. He studied about the great Chicago fires of the late eighteen-hundreds. While the Chicago newspaper was distorting the facts, the truth was that it was a meteor shower, just like this one, caused the fire. What the media ignored, was that Chicago wasn’t the only thing on fire at that very moment. Chicago, Wisconsin, and Michigan were all burning at the exact same time. Millions of acres of land were destroyed and two thousand people perished. Eye witnesses, minutes before these fires, claimed that they saw meteors in the sky. Scientists have found craters in these states to substantiate these claims.



So here it was, happening again, this time Metropolis had been the target. Unlike what happened back then, though, the sun never turned and stayed red like this. The panic in the streets of the Metropolis continued as the red the sun served as a constant reminder of what has happened, and what could be on the horizon. Stirring the pot were crazy, homeless people with cardboard signs that said: REPENT, FOR THE END IS NEAR...MATTHEW 24:29. Curiosity got the better of him, and the first chance he got, he looked up that verse.



"But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened , and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

It had to be a coincidence, but he could easily see how this Bible verse could be interpreted to the events that had happened today. Whether this was the fulfillment of that prophecy or not, he could not afford to allow these crazies to stir up more fear. He had a job to do, and he would do it until the end of the world.



Taking a minute for a breather, he found himself on the rooftop, staring up at the red sky and the blood-red sun. He had never seen anything like it in his life. This went against everything he knew about nature; he wished he could give a reasonable explanation for it. There was no lie that he could give people to try to calm their fears. Whatever this was, it was interfering with television and radio signals. He couldn’t listen to the news to see if anyone was giving an explanation for this. This was just short of the same kind of devastation caused by an EMP; it only seemed to affect mobile devices, cell phones, and televisions. The question was... would all of these things return if everything returned to normal?



Flying in his line of sight, Superman was making his way towards him. As he got closer, Dan noticed something different about him... his costume had changed. Instead of a blue and red suit, he sported an all black suit with a silver insignia on his chest. The only thing that that remained the same was his red cape with the yellow insignia.



“Decided to show off a new costume?” he asked as the Kryptonian as he came in for a soft landing on the rooftop, with him.



“Without the yellow sun, my powers are starting to wane. This suit is slowing that down, hopefully long enough to figure out what’s causing this.”



Right off the bat, his one question for him was answered. He wished that those words hadn’t come out of his mouth. “So, you don’t know what’s causing this. That was going to be my next question.”



“I have a strong suspicion on who’s behind it, but I don’t know how. I’ve been too busy around Metropolis to even think about it.” It was the truth; since the actual meteor shower, yesterday, there had been a long lingering aftermath which was threatening innocent people. Between his rescue missions and visiting Lois’s father in the hospital, the last forty-eight hours have been sleepless ones.



“It’s another alien thing, isn’t it?” Dan grunted. Some pretty weird stuff has been happening in Metropolis lately. Each time, it’s been escalating to a new degree of severity, and this event was the top of the cake. “Awhile ago, you mentioned something about an evil coming to this earth. Does this have anything to do with that?”



“I suspect so,” he replied honestly and openly.



Dan started to put the puzzle together in his mind. At least, he had some answers to his questions, but nothing he could use to help calm the fears of the people down. “It sounds like this red sun is geared towards you... to soften you up a bit before the knockout punch.”



Superman had come to the same conclusion. This was the precursor to an attack, but why did Darkseid feel he needed such an advantage? Their first encounter would have proven that he needed no advantage. Either he was leaving nothing to chance or he was playing games with him. “I believe you’re right.”



“Well, we can’t have that. Mags and I will see if we can’t help out and find out what’s causing the change. If we find anything, you’ll be the first to know.”



Superman smiled. He was grateful for friends like Lieutenant Inspector Dan Turpin. He was not as omnipotent as people though. With all these powers, he couldn’t be everywhere at once. He’s heard the arguments the before: he should try to save himself so he can be around to save others. As ‘noble’ as that may have sounded, he could not overlook the suffering of the innocent. The people of Metropolis were suffering, and as long as they were, he could not afford the time to find out how Darkseid had managed to turn the sun red. If it wasn’t for friends like Dan Turpin and Professor Hamilton, he would have his hands full trying to keep Metropolis safe. Unfortunately, the professor was no longer around to help him. “I appreciate it. If you don’t mind, more people are crying out for my help.”



* * * *



The sight of the red sun was the most beautiful thing Granny Goodness had ever seen. The shadowy Omega symbol in the heart of the sun was of particular good taste. It was very subtle, but bold statement. Let the people of Metropolis panic; their doom was at hand. They could spend the last hours of their days fearing for their miserable lives. Fear would lead these people to do unimaginable evils, and her master fed off of that.



She continued to stare at her master’s work of art from her undisclosed location. Beside her was the device responsible for turning the sun red. Kalibak was there with her to guard the device if or when Superman ever discovered its location. He was the son of her master, Lord Darkseid. The big brute was embarrassingly brainless. Her master was so embarrassed, that he could not stand being in his son’s presence. Unfortunately, someone had to keep an eye on him; what he lacked in intelligence, he more than compensated in strength. Since her master usually banished Kalibak from his presence, she was usually the one who had to make sure he didn’t get himself in trouble.



Now, she was stuck with him once again. Prancing back and forth, he was itching for a fight. His grumbling was already starting to get on her nerves. It was beginning to spoil her amazement of his father’s power at work. It almost made her wish that Superman would find them; at least then Kalibak would then have the fight that he was itching for.



The device, beside her, let out a series of three chimes. Upon the first chime, Granny Goodness spun around to face the device. During the last two, she straightened herself up to make herself more presentable. After the third chime, the blue light in the heart of the mechanical box lit up, and a holographic image of Lord Darkseid appeared over the box. “Yes, my lord?”



“The time has come for my honor gaurd to make their move.”



Kalibak snorted as he approached the image of his father. “Father, let me have Superman. Let me prove to you my worth.”



Darkseid’s face remained cold and emotionless. “You will prove your worth to me by obeying me and staying where you are.”



Kalibak growled in frustration as he stormed off in a huff. Granny could not bring herself to pity the fool. He deserved every ounce of his father’s contempt. He couldn’t be trusted for anything. Yes, he had great strength, but no wisdom on how to use it properly. Barda had even given up training the imbecile. He was beyond hope, and deserved much more than he was getting. She could not explain why her master even put up with him. Did it have something to do with some promise he made with the other gods? One thing was certain about Lord Darkseid... if he made a promise or vow, he NEVER went back on it, for better or for worse. “You want my ladies to draw Superman in battle. Do you have any specific target in mind?”



A small grin appeared on his face. “We have already disposed one of his closest allies; it’s time my honor guard introduced themselves to another.”

 

Chapter 8

Everyone in the MSCU was working overtime as the chaos in Metropolis continued. Only Turpin and Captain Sawyer were working on finding out what was engendering the Red Sun. He gave his word to Superman to that he would investigate the matter. He should have thought twice before making that promise; how on earth did he expect to be able to find the alien technology responsible? He was the least qualified to tackles such a task.

To start off with, Turpin had Sawyer investigate anything strange or ‘alien’ happening in the world. Her responsibility was to contact news organizations, state police precincts, the U.S. Military, the FBI, and even the U.S. Geological Survey. He took on the more difficult scientific field. He wanted to contact scientists and think tanks around the country to see if they know of any technology that could replicate the results they were now seeing. This proved to be more of a hair-pulling task than he had anticipated. It proved almost impossible to get a hold of many of these organizations, and the ones he did get a hold of, he couldn’t understand half of what was coming out of their mouths. Was no one able to dumb science down enough so someone like him could understand it? Odds were, they had no desire to dumb it down because they were so full of themselves and loved to hear themselves speak and sound all intellectual. The only scientist that he knew and liked was Professor Hamilton, but he was now dead.

Turpin was on one of those calls, and the more this moron spoke, the bigger his headache became. He was not giving him any answers; he was more interested in selling him propaganda instead of admitting that he didn’t have a clue what was going on. “So, you’re telling me that the red sun is a result of global warming. Am I hearing you correctly?”

Instead of a one word answer, he ended up getting a two page oral report. As he listened to this long winded response, he fought the urge to pull out his gun and shoot himself in the head. The first chance he got, he interrupted the man’s rambling. “Okay, okay, okay! First, you people say that an asteroid flying by earth is a symptom of global warming, and now you’re saying that the sun going red is global warming as well. If you people are so smart, than why don’t you see how stupid that sounds?” With that, he pressed the ‘END’ button on his touch-screen cell phone, and slammed it down on his desk. “God, I hate scientists!”

He needed a break from these intellectual snobs, and he especially needed a couple of Aleve to help with his headache. He stood up from his desk, ready to make his way to a vending machine to get himself a bottle of water. No longer did he take his first step away from his desk when the sound of thunder caused the building to shake. He looked out the window, behind his desk, but it was sunny outside without a single cloud in the sky. That was when he realized that what he heard was not thunder. “What?”

The sound of gun shots confirmed his worst fear: someone was attacking the MSCU. He ripped out his gun and ran towards the commotion. The gunfire was becoming more intense as if a war was breaking loose in the building. He had no idea who they were up against, but he was beginning to suspect that it was a small army of highly trained soldiers. Who else would be crazy enough to attack a well fortified building like this?

The fire alarms went off, adding to the intensity of the situation. All the other desks in the building were now evacuated. Folders and papers were scattered across the floor. Another agent ran past Turpin to get to the action; his gun was also drawn. Even through the sounds of gun firing and the fire alarm blaring, he could still hear screams from both men and women. Now, he knew this was bad.

He followed the noise into the main lobby and found that things were even worse than he feared. Bodies were quickly mounting up in piles. In the center of the lobby were four women; each one unique in body mass and armor, but all just as deadly. There was no way these women could be human; the body armor was a dead giveaway.

A few agents were using the secretary’s desk as a shield, as they fired their guns. The bullets bounced off the women just like they would do with Superman. These women were definitely alien. There were guns being fired at them from all direction, but none of them were being fazed by the massive onslaught of bullet coming at them. Despite the futility of it, Turpin didn’t know what else to do but to join his agents in firing his weapon.

One of the women looked like she was raised in the wild. Her hair was frizzy and unkempt, and she wore very little armor. She was one of the two average body built women, but her face clearly showed that she was utterly insane.She sprang up into the air, nearly hitting the ceiling. She looked like a pouncing tiger, landing onto the shoulders of another MSCU male agent. Pinning him to the ground, she raised her right hand, where she had some kind of steel glove with razor claws melded with her hand, almost like Freddy Krueger. With one swipe, she shredded his throat into ribbons.

Another one of the women had a different body mass altogether. She looked as if she was nearly four or five hundred pounds. Yet, her weight did not prove to be any sort of hindrance to her in the least. One male agent tried to sneak up from behind her, but failed miserably. With strength that was beyond any mortal human, she grabbed him and picked him up above her head. Without mercy, she dropped him, back first, onto her knee. There was sickening snap upon impact then the lifeless body crashed to the floor.

“Holy crap!” Turpin muttered. These women were just as strong as Superman, and the red sun did not seem to slow them down. The only difference between these women and the Big Man was that these women were blood-thirsty terrorists.

The other average body-built female warrior wore no armor at all except for a very strange looking helmet, which looked almost like a steel baseball catcher’s mask. She was probably the sexiest looking of the bunch, but that did not conceal her lethal abilities. She used some kind of electrified whip to do her carnage. With a quick flick of the whip, she left a third-degree burn streak across her face. The poor girl was rolling on the ground, screaming in agony. Another one of his agents allowed her to get too close to him. He tried to shoot her, but with careful and professional precision, she flicked her whip and it wrapped around the wrist of his gun carrying hand. The agent screamed as smoke rose from his wrist, and within three seconds, his hand became severed.

The last woman, was the tallest women he had ever seen. She had to be seven feet tall, and she was the most armored woman of the bunch. Her armor looked as it was made of pure gold and other metals that he had never seen before. Her helmet looked like it weighed at least fifty pounds, and by the exotic design, he had to assume she was the leader of the bunch. Yet, she did the least carnage of the bunch, only reacting when directly assaulted. That’s exactly what happened as Captain Sawyer appeared out of nowhere in an attempt to tackle the leader.

“Mags, don’t!” Turpin screamed, but his warning came too late. With lightning quick reflexes, she caught Captain Sawyer’s wrist in her left hand. She revealed just how lethal she could be with a sudden twist, breaking Captain Sawyer’s wrist without much effort.

“Maggie!”

Maggie Sawyer was screaming in agony, but the tall, alien warrior was not done. With a swift and precise, almost ninja-like, maneuver, she twisted Maggie’s arm and he could hear another bone break in her arm. The leader of this lethal team of women threw her, with Superman-like strength, into the secretary’s desk. The impact caused her to flip over the desk, like a dear being hit by a speeding car, before crashing into another agent.

Turpin’s anger flashed to life as pointed his gun towards the woman who had done this to not only the best captain he had ever had, but his closest friend. The woman stared calmly and coldly back at him, showing no fear of him or his inferior weapon. The fact that these ladies were impenetrable had slipped his mind, as a blind rage overtook all senses and reason. “Eat this, you tall, alien b—“

The building started to shake, and a small, circular area of the ceiling collapsed to the ground, between Turpin and the four women. Crashing through the ceiling was a black blur, which became clear once it slammed into the ground. The tiles cracked upon the impact. The shroud of dust faded to show Superman standing before the women with his arms folded in front of him. He still wore his special black suit and silver insignia on his chest. He was trying to appear normal, but Turpin knew better. He was probably the only one who noticed his slight stagger when he landed.

The leader of the four women continued to show no emotions, as if she was not impressed by his entrance. The other women varied in reactions, though none seemed overly concerned. It was the attractive one who appeared to be eying over the Man of Steel. “Hellooooo Sexy!”

Standing behind him, Turpin could not see the expression on Superman’s face, but he could feel the frustration and anger radiating from his presence. “I don’t know who you are, but your fun time has come to an end.”

“So you’re this super human that I hear so much about. I must confess; I’m even less impressed than I was warned about being. My master made you out to be some kind of savior of this wretched planet.”

“Darkseid? Is he really this much of a coward to come to face me in person?”

Turpin knew that Superman was trying to buy some time. The Big Man was trying to give him time to clear out the room. The last thing he or the Big Man needed was for any of his agents to get caught in the crossfire. Using conspicuous hand motions, he ordered all the agents still standing to pull back, and make their way towards the back emergency exit. He glanced over at Captain Maggie Sawyer, lying unconscious on the floor, and wished he could get her out. It was impossible to evacuate anyone who could not walk out under their own power without setting the fight off early. Trying to save Sawyer would only put her in harm’s way.

If the ladies did notice them departing, they didn’t seem to care; their whole focus was on Superman. “Don’t delude yourself. Lord Darkseid doesn’t dirty his hands with inferior filth like you; you’re beneath him. Besides, I wouldn’t worry about him, right now, when you have us to worry about.”

 

Chapter 9

“Enough talk, already! I want his head!” Mad Harriet roared, pushing past her fellow Furious with an unquenchable desire for the right to be the one to kill Superman. She pushed through the other women and charged at Superman with her right hand raised. The blood-stained rusty claws on the hand were ready to draw more blood.

She went right for his face, but he easily avoided the claws with a well-timed side-step. With his left hand, he caught her wrist after her failed clawing of his face. With a sudden jerk, he tossed her behind him, throwing her through a window to the outside world.

There was a brief micro-expression of shock on the faces of the other women, which quickly changed to anger. Stompa took particular offense to what he did to Harriet. Of the four furies, she was the one who hated the male species the most. No one knew why she had such an extreme abhorrence towards men; she was not the type of person to talk about her past. The moment Superman threw Harriet out the window, that detestation exploded out of her like a bomb.

Screaming with unbridled anger, she charged at him with full force. Superman could feel the vibration of the floor beneath his feet with every step she took, yet he could not have expected her strength. She tackled him like a football linebackers, and picked him up off his feet as she rammed him through the wall. She wasn’t done there; she continued ramming him through several desks before going through two more walls. They broke through to the other side of the building, entering the streets of Metropolis before she stopped on the dime.

The sudden stop threw Superman towards the street. The wall exploding caught a handful of people by surprised, as they found themselves caught in the crossfire. A few ladies and a gentleman managed to leap to the ground and covered their heads with their hands to try to protect themselves from shattered chunks of bricks. One man could not get out of the way in time, and was knocked down as Superman’s leg collided into him.

A commercial semi-truck was passing by at the time, as he crashed into the large trailer. He became embedded into the large dent he made in the side of trailer, but he also hit the tractor hard enough to cause it to tilt onto one side. It stayed like that, balancing on its right wheels until the weight of the tractor pulled it the rest of the way down. An unexpected motorist, in the lane next to the truck, tried to avoid being crushed by the truck; he ended up over compensating his adjustments and ended up in a head-on collision with a corner of an office building.

The ear-piercing squealing of cars hitting their breaks added to the chaos as cars tried desperately to avoid hitting the fallen semi. A few cars succeeded, only to be rear ended by the cars behind them. After a half-dozen or so of rear-end collisions, the bedlam had come to an end. The commotion was only beginning as people were instinctively running from the scene. One good Samaritan helped the man who had had inadvertently collided with the Man of Steel. The man cuddled his broken arm as he accepted the help.

Pushing himself out of the indentation he made in the side of the trailer and leapt off onto the road. He had no idea whether that female warrior was able to do this because of his dwindling strength or if she really was that strong; either way, he realized he could not take any of these ladies lightly.

Stompa took two steps forward to stand in front of a parallel parked taxi which had just been abandoned. Kneeling down, she grabbed the bottom frame of the car and flipped the whole vehicle towards Superman. It flipped two full rotations in the air before landing onto its side. It rolled towards him, landing onto its four wheels, and the momentum rolled it onto its other side. That’s when Superman raised his right foot and used the flat of his foot to stop the car in its track. With a strong push, the car slid on its side back towards her. The other women were about to come out of the hole in the wall until it slammed into Stompa and then up against the hole.

It was more of a message than a retaliatory attack. He knew that the women would make short work of his makeshift blockade. It was more of a move to see how they reacted and to see what these women were capable of. From what he could tell, these women were merely head hunters who got their kicks by getting their hands stained with blood. From what he could tell, only one of them was a serious threat to causing massive damage to the city, yet he suspected that Darkseid had the stocky woman on a leash. Everything they’ve done up to this point was meant to pass along a message to him; therefore this encounter was, no doubt, an attempt to see how much the red sun has affected him in order to gauge whether it was time for an invasion. All he had to do was show his resolve to never accept defeat as an option. If he was going to do this, he needed to know what these women were capable of.

An untimely coughing fit overtook him; the truth of the matter was, the red sun was doing a number on him. His powers continued to dwindle at an alarming rate. If he didn’t find out how Darkseid had pulled this off soon, then he and all of planet earth were in serious trouble.

As he expected, the women made short work with the blockade. The car shot diagonally upward like a speeding bullet. It was so intense, it caused Superman to flinch. The car shot across the street and hit the corner of a building five stories up in the sky before falling to the ground like a paperweight. Stepping out of the hole first was Big Barda, with her Mega-rod in her hand. It was a weapon unlike anything Superman had ever seen before. Somehow, he surmised that he had not seen its full potential yet.

Mad Harriet had rejoined her comrades by this time. She stood behind Barda, itching for some payback, but it was going to be Lashina who would have a go next. Whipping her electric whip in seemingly random zig-zag patterns, she did some impressive gymnastic-like flips and twirls in, out, and around the electrified whip. She was doing flips, cartwheels, and some kind of alien martial-arts-like moves all while avoiding being electrocuted.

She came to an abrupt stop just outside an arm’s-reach of him. Giving him a seductive glaze, she blew him a kiss before unleashing a barrage of high-flying kicks, which caught him off-guard. She was fast, agile, and very much aggressive. Even he was having troubles keeping up with her. Every kick and jab she through found their marks; it was near impossible to know where the next kick or jab was coming from. He was able to block an occasional jab, but she quickly came with another. His weakened condition was slowing his reaction time.

She ended her volley of punches and jabs with a flick of the whip. The whip wrapped around his neck and sent electricity through his entire body. Screaming, the pain forced him onto his knees. The results was not what Lashina was hoping for; by now, the whip would have burnt through the flesh and behead any other victim. For some reason, it was not having the same affect on this man.

Seeing her mental distraction through her eyes, Superman took advantage and unleashed his heat beams from his eyes. He fired them just shy of her hand, but it was plenty of close enough for her to feel the heat from the beams. “Yow!” she yelped, releasing the handle of the whip which resulted with the electricity shutting off. The moment the pain ended, he unwrapped the lifeless whip from around his neck.

Lashina quickly went for a high kick across his face; it was a move he had accurately anticipated. He caught her ankle in his right hand. He stood up, causing her to lose what little balance she had by standing on one leg. Not knowing how invincible she may be, he put a small amount of strength into swinging her around and throw her, back first, into the belly of the tipped over semi-truck.

Barda was surprised by Superman’s resolve. For someone who was in a weaken state, he was proving to be quite a handful. She and her female warriors assumed this would have been over by now. She had wondered why her master was going through all this just for one man. She had never seen him pay this much attention to any one person in all the worlds he conquered. Was this man—this ‘Superman’—more than what she had imagined?

Her focus on her advisory was briefly interrupted when a shadowy voice whispered in the back of her mind. “Barda!”

No sooner as the voice called out her name, an intense burning sensation seared through her brain. The sudden shock and intensity of it caused her inner rage to boil. It was anger that had no reason behind it. This pain always seemed to follow that annoying whisper of her name; but it had been a long time since the last occurrence.

Her rage took control of her and before any of her other Fury could make the next move, she was charging at him like an angry rhino. Using her left hand, she waved her Mega-rod which unleashed a flash of white light. Blinded by the flash, it lowered his defenses enough for Barda to get in close with a punch. With a violent roar, she came in with one of her best uppercuts she could manage. The punch sent Superman flying over the wrecked semi-truck and through a second-story window of the office building.

Only partially evacuated, Superman crashing through the office sparked an urgency in the rest of the remaining people. Before he could stand up, he had to shake away the blurriness and the lingering effects of the powerful uppercut. Barda, continued in her rage as she took a kneeling jump to bounce off the semi-truck and through the shattered window.

Superman was getting back onto his feet as she landed inside the office. Before he had the chance to fully come to his senses, she jabbed her mega-rod, now in her right hand, forward as if it was a sword. A white beam was unleashed and hit him in the chest with the force a freight train. The impact sent him flying through several more walls before exploding through a window at the opposite end of the building. A maxed-out parking lot was immediately next to the building. Gravity finished its job and he landed on the rooftop of a coup. The hood caved in slightly and all the windows shattered upon his impact.

He did not know what she hit him with, but it left his chest feeling numb. He found it hard to breath as part of the after-effects. As another coughing fit came upon him, the after-effects were made even more painful. That weapon was proving to be more of problem than he had anticipated. He was going to have to try to avoid it at all costs.

A few people saw the commotion in the parking lot and watched in curiosity from the other side of the gate. These few, young people had no idea what was happening; they were thrill seekers who were completely unaware of the danger they were in. All they knew was Superman was around and, they had come to see what was happening. Luckily, there were many more people who were fully aware of the situation and were running for their lives.

As his breath was starting to return, he heard the familiar, aggressive roar that warned him that another attack was coming. Barda showed off some of her invulnerability and strength when she leaped from the second-story window and past two rows of parked cards. Her aiming was precise and she came down upon him, feet first, like a sledge hammer upon a nail. The car nearly split in half before it exploded in a small ball of flames. The shockwave of the explosion shattered the windshields of all vehicles in a five car radius. It was after that explosion, the young people realized the danger they were in and backed away. Some backed into the street, which brought the traffic to an abrupt halt.

After a brief stint of calmness, chaos resumed. From the flames, Barda was sent soaring backwards to the other end of the parking lot. She slammed into the back windshield of a Lincoln town car, cracking the back window upon impact. She had the wind knocked out of her for sure, but with her extensive training on Apokolypse, she had conditioned herself to be able to maintain her senses at all times, especially when her body was temporarily stunned. Her senses, immediately, warned her that she needed to get back onto her feet.

She fought against her body, who slightly protested not being given time to recuperate, and stood up on top of the trunk of the car. Just as she anticipated, Superman came jumping from the flames with his right first pulled back for a super-punch. Barda had to leap to her right, onto the trunk of the last car in her row to avoid the punch. Superman narrowly missed her, ending up putting his fist into the hood of the car, leaving a large indentation.

Barda leaped with her incredible strength towards Superman with her mega-rod posed to strike. He quickly responded by standing up straight, taking a deep breath, and unleashing all of the air in his lungs. The sudden impact of the wind caused her to miss her target and land on the trunk of the car next to the one he was standing on. Being hit with hurricane strength winds, her feet could not grab hold of the metal of the car. The wind easily blew her all the way out of the parking lot and into the street. The traffic had already come to a stop, but now the wind was slowly pushing the cars sideways along with Barda. She rolled all the way to the other end of the street until she hit the wall of another office building. That was when Superman ceased blowing.

When the wind stopped, her back slid down the wall until she was sitting on the ground. Humiliated beyond words, anger welled up inside. No one has ever defeated her, let alone embarrass her in such a manner. No man or woman has ever proven to be a challenge as much as this man was, and he was fighting with a handicap. She had never encountered anyone with such resolve.

“Barda!” That familiar, whispering voice echoed in the back of her brain, followed by that also familiar sharp pain as if her brain was going to explode. This time, the pain was even more excruciating than before, as if her brain was desperately trying to keep something from escaping. She yelped at the pain, grasping at her head which felt like it was going to explode.

“Barda?” The other three Furies were walking calmly down the street to come to their leader’s aid. They believed that she had been injured by something Superman had done, which was nowhere near the truth.

She climbed back to her feet and wiped the dust off of her armor. The women watched as Superman stepped out of the parking lot. All of them were itching to tear this man apart. Barda, still fighting the after affects of her episode was glowering towards him. “Furies... we take him together.”

 

Chapter 10

Superman knew that things were about to get interesting. Each of the lady warriors, who call themselves the Female Furies, had their go at him and realized that he still had fight left in him. Now, it was clear that they were about to come at him with a new battle plan. If they couldn’t beat him separately, they were going to do so together as a cohesive unit.

That had him a little worried. His strength was depleting thanks to the sun being turned red by Darkseid. Individually, each Fury proved to be quite dangerous in various expertises. Together, they could be more than a match for him. If he hoped to take these women down, he was going to have to find a way to divide them up.

The four Furies had him surrounded; all four were posed to strike. He tried to get a sense of who was thinking about getting the first strike in, but had no luck. Their faces could not be read. They had full control of all of their senses, and probably didn’t even need to talk verbally to communicate with each other. There was no doubt that they knew each other so well, there was no need to talk in order to orchestrate a battle plan.

Lashina attacked first with her electrified whip. He stepped aside to avoid being touched by it, but as a result, he stepped a little too close to Harriet. In as quickly as he took the step, he realized who was now in striking distance. He spun around to face her, which inadvertently saved him from a swipe of her claws. Instead of finding flesh, they only caught the cloth of his cape, leaving three tears across his insignia.

He pulled his right fist behind him, winding up for a powerful jab across the face, when Lashina’s electrified whip wrapped caught his arm. Pain rippled through his arm, stunning him long enough to distract him from Barda’s attack. She unleashed another beam from her rod, pushing him backwards. Stompa was there to meet him, and with her right arm stretched out, she clothes lined him from the back. His face hit the ground first, damaging the asphalt upon impact.

Lying face-in-the-ground, he started to push himself up off the ground, but Stompa grabbed his suit by the collar, and picked him up over her head. She didn’t even struggle in picking him off the ground, which showed off her abnormal strength. She displayed it again when she tossed him into the side of a car.

Superman grunted, as he felt his back stiffen. His body was bruised and sore; more so than it normally would have been thus far. The red sun was introducing him to unfamiliar sensations that he had never felt before; one of them being pain. He was now breathing very hard, and it wasn’t necessarily because of exhaustion. It felt like he was trying to breathe through an atmosphere full of smog. It was like something was starting to clog his lungs. Sweat was also starting to seep through his pours.

His body wanted to give up, but his soul would have none of that. Managing to get up onto his hands and knees, he looked out to see the four Furies prancing towards him. If he was going to get anywhere, he was going to have to divide these women up, and now was the time to do it. There was no question which of the four he had to separate first.

Barda swung her rod upward to unleash a white wave-beam. Moving at the speed of lightning, Superman narrowly dodged the attack as the beam sliced the car in half and shattered the glass of the office building behind it. In a black blur, he used his super speed while charging at Barda. Coming at her too fast, she could not see what kind of attack he was coming at her with. The next thing she knew, she was flying backwards until she crashed through the second story window of a business tower. Superman now stood in her place, and in his hand, he held her Mega-rod. Without hesitation, and before any of the Furies could make another move, he folded and crumpled it as if it was made of paper.

The three other Furies snarled at him, clearly not happy with what he had just done. “You’re gonna pay for that!” Stompa growled, pounding her left palm with her right fist.

Twisting his wrist, he allowed the crinkled piece of iron, in the palm of his hand, to roll off and fall to the ground. With speed that surprised the Furies, he launched himself at Stompa, flying just high enough off the ground to ram into her belly. Flying down the street, he wrapped his arms around her waist as he started to elevate upward towards the sky.

“Let me go!” She growled, fighting to break free from his grip. The more she fought, the more uncertain he became in how long he could keep his grip on her. He pushed himself higher above the city. The higher he went above the city, the quicker it would be to get out. He was close to Metropolis’ boarder and to a nice stretch of forest; it was the perfect place to drop her before heading back into the city to fight the other three Furies.

When she started pounding his back with her elbows, his grip started to slip. He had no idea if Stompa would survive a long drop, but he decided to err on the side of caution. He flew towards the forest at a steeper angle than he would usually attempt. He was approaching so steep and so fast, there he knew that this was not going to be a soft landing. It took everything he had to not lose his grip on her until he could assure her survival

He pierced through the tree tops like a speeding bullet, but in the process, his grip had slipped. Two collisions resulted, both leaving decent size meteor-like craters in the dirt. After the dust settled, there was chilling silence for several seconds. Superman stirred first, as he fought against his aching body to climb out of the crater and to get back onto his feet. Looking back, Stompa was still alive and was starting to come around.

As much as he could use a breather, if he stayed there any longer, this Fury would draw him into a battle, and this whole plan of his would be ruined. She would fight him until the other Furies found them. So before she was able to make it back onto her feet, he leaped up and zipped up into the sky to begin his journey back into Metropolis.

As he raced back into the city, another coughing fit forced him to slow down and descend until he was about ten feet above the street. This bout was the worst yet, and it caused his chest to hurt. He was so distracted by the coughing, he failed to see that he was about to fly under a tunnel of white ring of lights. Just as he was directly underneath it, Stompa came dropping out, feet first, landing on top of his back with such force, it sent them both crashing into the street.

The cars, traveling down that street, came to an abrupt halt, nearly causing a massive pile up of rear-end collisions. People immediately started getting out of the cars, and those closest to the action ran to find a safe distance. Everyone else got out and just watched from where they were.

Stompa stepped off of Superman, who was still groggy after the attack. She was not going to give the time to come to his senses; all she was interested in was causing as much pain to this man as possible. His defiance had been grating on her every nerve. No male has ever put up this much of a fight; she’d be damned if a man got the better of her.

Another boom tunnel formed, and this time, Barda led the other two Furies arrived at the scene. Superman had attempted to separate Stompa from the rest of the Furies, but was only now learning that they were always prepared for that scenario. They were highly trained warriors; they could easily adapt to any scenario that stood in their way.

“Barda... up high!” Stompa called out.

The leader of the Furies nodded, knowing what she needed to do. The Female Furies had had their run-ins with some fierce adversaries. This move that they were about to do was used in those rare occasions. After experiencing it, no one had ever regained momentum. Within minutes, the Furies would always claim their victory.

Barda charged forward as Stompa took Superman by the collar of his suit. After taking a deep breath, she called upon all of her strength and threw him up into the air. She was able to toss him about two stories off the ground; which was the perfect height for what she wanted. Barda jumped onto the back of a car, and then leaped onto the hood. She bounced off the hood with such force, she left a small indentation dead center of the hood.

Superman realized that he was thrown up into the air, and as his body was getting ready to adhere to gravity, he corrected himself and hovered in place. It was too late before he realized that doing so only worked in the Fury’s favor. He managed to right himself so he was upright when he saw Barda approaching in mid-air. He had failed to notice her leap towards him, and now he was in perfect position for her to do the most possible damage in the attack. She threw her fist straight into his chest and sent him soaring backwards, crashing through the wall of the hospital.

* * * *

When her father let out a moan, Lois threw her pen and notepad onto the floor and raced to the side of his cot. Having been by her father’s side since the beginning, she had been doing her work here in his hospital room. Granted, her work was not up to her normal Pulitzer Prize-winning caliber, but right now, being with him was more important.

The General’s eyes explored his surrounds for a moment before they found Lois standing beside his cot. Upon seeing her, all the earlier memories, of the events that had led up to his incident, came rushing back to him. His appearance of vulnerability vanished quickly and was replaced by the more familiar look of stubbornness. When he looked away, that was when Lois’s temper flared. “Really, Dad?”

An abnormal but familiar rumbling sound, almost sounding like thunder, caught her attention from outside the window. She walked over and opened the curtains just a crack so not to flood the room with the bright sunlight. Being on the second from the top level of the hospital, she had a very limited view of the street below, but she did manage to make out Superman laying in a ditch in the middle of the street with a strange-looking, stocky woman towering over him.

A commotion from the lobby, outside the room, grabbed her attention. Nurses and doctors were running up and down the hallway until a nurse and several nursemaids entered the room. “The east wing of the hospital is being temporarily evacuated for precautionary reasons. We’ve got to get your father moved to the west wing.”

The nurses and the nurse maids were speedily preparing her father and the equipment that he was connected to. Lois watched, torn about Clark fighting in his weakened state. The red sun was quickly turning him to a normal human; fighting against an alien warrior in his state was more than enough to cause her great concern. He was more vulnerable than he had ever been before, and she wasn’t sure he would take that into account when going off to battle. She was afraid that he would get himself killed.

Another faint rumble followed by the building shaking, gave her a sickening feeling in her stomach. There were panicked shrieks and screams coming from the entire floor, and the now the nurses and nurse maids were doubled their efforts. Lois looked out the window and down towards the street. It was just as she feared, she could no longer see Clark, and now she saw four strange, alien-looking warriors in the street along with dust coming out from the hospital beneath her.

“Oh god... Clark!”

 

New Chapter coming this weekend. I will try to post a new chapter every weekend.

 

Chapter 11

The Four furies leaped through the hole in the Hospital wall which had been made by Superman’s impact. It was the X-ray room that felt the brunt of the attack. Sparks were flying as the room looked like a tornado had struck. Through all the carnage, Superman was nowhere to be seen.

“Where is he? He’s got to be close to being dead after that!” Harriet commented.

“There’s something seriously different about this man,” Lashina agreed.

“Keep it in your pants, Lash!” Stompa growled. Her friend may find pleasure in ogling over men, but not Stompa. She hated the male species with all her being. “The next time I see him, I’m going to rip his head from his shoulders.”

Barda was keenly keeping an eye out for Superman, but there was something in the words of Lashina that sparked an internal strife within her. There was definitely something different about Superman than any of the other adversaries she and her Furies have taken on. He was supposed to be an easy target with the changing of Earth’s sun, but this man kept on finding not just a second wind, but a third and forth. He would not stay down, despite the odds being four-to-one against him. No one has ever shown this much resilience under such odds and circumstances.

Contemplating this proved to be an untimely distraction. She failed to hear one of Fury’s warning as Superman came flying like a speeding bullet out of the debris. Stompa barely had the time to shove her out of the way to take the blow himself. Stompa did so, most likely, not realizing how big the impact was going to be; having been delivered a super powered punch, she found herself flying back out of the hospital and falling all the way back down onto the street.

For the first time since Barda became leader of the Furies, the Furies have been caught disorganized by the reemergence of Superman still having some fight left. Lashina attacked with her whip while Harriet attacked like a rabid wolverine. The miscommunication allowed him not only to sidestep the whip, but it also resulted with Harriet accidently getting wrapped up in the electrified whip. She screamed as the electricity coursed through her body. Lashina quickly turn off the electricity, but the damage was already done.

Superman grabbed Harriet, who was on her knees with her body smoking, and threw her into Lashina with enough force to send them both flying out of the hospital. Enraged, Barda charged in with a punch that even surprised Superman, and it sent him flying upward through several floors. He had no idea what level of the hospital he was now in, but he found himself in the lobby in what appeared to be the patient recovery section. Doctor and Nurses were running around franticly trying to evacuate the patients.

Among the patients being strolled through the hallways was General Lane. When he saw him and Lois in the hallways, the urgency in getting this battle out of the hospital grew exponentially. He can read the concern on Lois’ face and could only imagine what he looked like to her. His suit was beaten up, and his body was bruised. He probably looked like he had just gone through World War Three.

He could also feel the eye of the General glaring at him as to blame him for everything that’s happened. He had never been a fan of him, but now, probably even more so now that he knew that Clark Kent and Superman were one and the same. He was especially not happy that his daughter was about to marry him.

Barda leaped through the hole to join him on that level. He could see that she was not going to stop fighting because of the innocent people all around. She appeared willing to put them all in harm’s way to accomplish her goal in destroying him. There was no compassion in her eyes; thus, there was no way to reason with her. She threw another super punch for his jaw, but he put everything he had in catching his fist in the palm of his right hand. “I will not allow you to hurt these people!”

He took flight through the ceiling, pulling her along for the ride. He used his X-ray vision to navigate through the remaining floor so not to hurt anyone in the process. Crashing through the ceiling, he flew several more feet into the air. He spun in place, holding on to Barda’s wrist with both hands. After a dozen or so rotations, he stopped and swung her forcibly downward at the six level hospital parking garage.

She fell like a meteor towards the parking garage and crashed through the top level upon impact. She landed in an empty parking space, leaving a large crack in the cement. She laid there on her back, with the wind knocked out of her; her back and limbs were sore. She could only lay there until her breath returned. “Who is—this hero?”

“Barda.”

A sudden pain ripped through her brain with such intensity, it felt like her brain was being ripped in two. She let out a blood curdling scream the echoed throughout the parking garage. She grasped at her head as her body convulsed violently. A bright white light blinded her, drowning out everything around her.

At first, she thought she was going blind, and this whiteness was going to be a permanent situation. After what felt like an eternity, a familiar voice called out to her. “Little Bardie!”

A faint image of a man, stood before her. He seemed vaguely familiar; he appeared to be warm and caring, unlike any man she ever remembered meeting. Yet, he seemed to recognize her. He held his hand down to her, inviting her to grab hold. “It’s time for you to remember, Little Bardie!”

“Daddy?”

A floodgate opened in her mind, unleashing an untamed stream of memories that had been locked away. Images of her life on a planet named New Genesis; a kind and peaceful planet who knew little of violence and bloodshed. She remembered her mother and father... but they were not her natural parents. She remembered her true parents who were god, much like Darkseid, but gods of peace. She remembered Darkseid’s forces killing them, leaving her alone to fend for her young self. She would have starved if she hadn’t been rescued by a young Kryptonian scientist. That young man brought her to New Genesis to be raised by a peaceful race of people.

Her eyes widen as she remembered the insignia on the Kryptonian’s chest. It was the same exact image that Superman now bore on his chest. That image, now ingrained in her memory, she remembered the prophecy of Orion, as told to her by her father.

“A hero will wise and defeat the darkness. He will have sacrificed much to become the hero he was destined to be. He will be a visitor among his own people. He will have the powers of the gods, and he will protect those who can’t protect themselves. He will be a light of hope, and will have nerves of steel.”

* * * *

With the leader separated from the other women, and the momentum on his side, Superman decided to go after the three remaining Furies. That proved to be a big mistake. At first, they were still disillusioned by the sudden turn of events. That allowed him to take them on individually, which was not a problem when it came to Lashina and Mad Harriet. Stompa was another problem all together. She was the strongest of the four Furies. Add that to her rage and she was a handful all on her own. When he came at her, she slowed his momentum down to a crawl, which was exactly what they needed to regroup.

Stompa was standing on top of a manhole cover as Superman charged at her. He failed to realize that she had figured out what it was made of. As he neared, she stomped on it with such force, if flipped upward like a coin. She caught it and swung it into his face. With a loud thud upon impact, he fell to the ground face first. With his head spinning after such a blow, it didn’t take long to realize that he had just lost his momentum.

Stompa picked him back up to his feet and shoved him towards Lashina. She was quick to deliver a kick across the face. The kick sent him stumbling towards Harriet, who had her razor claws posed to strike. He came to his senses just in time to step back and avoid the claws from doing serious damage. Instead, they glazed over his insignia, leaving three slashes across his chest.

Stompa stepped up from behind and delivered a painful jab to his rib cage. He let out a scream as he fell to a knee. The punch had been a devastating one; the pain was so fierce that it was almost hard to breath. The Fury continued her desolation of him when she raised both of her fists over her head and pounded them both onto his shoulders. That forced him onto both knees.

Lashina stepped up and landed another kick across the face, forcing him down onto the ground. With his face to the ground, Stompa took her giant right foot and placed it onto the nap of his neck. “I’m gonna enjoy watching your head pop off your shoulders.”

Like a whirlwind, Barda came out of nowhere to deliver a punch so powerful, it sent sailing into the side of an abandoned pick-up truck. She couldn’t quite be sure what had just happened until Barda continued her barrage of attacks. Her jab and kick were lightning quick and powerful; Stompa tried to throw a punch to get her off, but Barda caught her wrist and brought down an elbow on top of her arm, breaking it with a sickening crack. Stompa yowled in pain as she fell to the ground, cradling her arm.

Lashina and Harriet were horrified by what they just witnessed. Their own leader was attacking them with that same aggressiveness that they should be showing Superman. Harriet, in particular, was distressed by the betrayal. “Traitor!” She spat as she charged after her with both razor claws raised. There was nothing she wanted more than to rip Barda to shreds at that very moment.

Barda stood her ground as she pulled out her golden ax that she had hitched onto a strap that went across her body armor on her back. She held her ax horizontally in front of her and with the neck of the ax, she kept Harriet’s blades from finding flesh. She immediately responded with a kick in the gut and then a powerful uppercut.

Barda turned her focus on Lashina, who was not as quick to charge her as Harriet. She was trained by Barda, herself, and learned everything from her. She knew that to go up against her now was folly. Barda knew her just as well, and she put her ax away. She stepped away from the other women where were still on the ground, dazed and confused. “Take the others and leave before I change my mind.”

Lashina had murder in her eyes. She had no choice but to accept her terms and leave. She cautiously walked to her friends, but her eyes, never once, departed from Barda. “Your punishment will be unmercifully server at the hands of Lord Darkseid.”

“Yours will be worse if our paths ever cross again.”

Lashina scowled at her as she joined the other Furies. A boom tunnel appeared behind them, and it took both Lashina and Harriet to help Stompa up onto her feet. The three furies retreated into the light before it closed behind them. With the closing of the boom tunnel, the decision she made about her fate was finalized. She has now officially betrayed Darkseid, possibly to her peril.

Superman watched the whole thing unfold, not quite sure what was happening. He cautiously approached her, ready to continue the fight if she so chose to. His body hoped that she chose not to; these women had pushed him to his utter limits. “What’s your game? Why did you help me? What are you up to?”

Barda’s face remained unreadable as she turned to face him. She made no sudden, provoking moves towards him. “My actions are simple: I seek Asylum.”

 

well, I'm done. This story is done, unless someone actually reads up to this point. If you're reading this story and want to see more of this story here, I need to hear from.

Otherwise it will be completed on Fan Fiction . not and that is where I'm going on.

 

Thank you for the Like. Ever since the move to these new boards, I've pretty much lost all my readers. I really don't want to leave these forums, I've been here for six years. If you are enjoying this story, and would continue to read it if I continued to post, let me know, and I would gladly continue to post here.

 

Because of the some signs of life, I'll post another few chapters, in hopes that more life will be sparked.

Chapter 12

The request came as a shock. They had just been through a glorified death match against each other, and just like that, she changed her mind. Sarcastically speaking, there was absolutely nothing suspicious about that. How was he supposed to take her seriously after what they just went through? “Asylum? After all the death and destruction you and your friends caused?”

Barda remained steadfast as she put her ax away. She showed no remorse or humility, nor was she reserved in her request. She was not ashamed of herself, or at least, not willing to show it. She was tall, and not only was she physically strong, but willfully and emotionally so as well. After all, she was still a highly-trained, lethal warrior. “Believe me, I regret the things I was made to do, but you don’t have the faintest idea what I’ve been through.”

“Made to do?” Superman asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You know little about what you’re up against. I don’t think you fully grasp what Darkseid is capable of. I was a child when he and his army came to my world. He made me watch as his minions killed my parents. They took me back to their home world of Apokolips, where I was forced to endure many years of torture, training, and brain washing through hypnotism and soothsaying. He locked away all my memories of who I used to be, and implanted memories of violence, death, and destruction. It was you who unlocked those memories and allowed me to remember who I really am.”

“Me?”

“The emblem on your chest, to be more precise. I am, what many races call, a New God. The New Gods is a long extinct race of highly advanced beings who were all but immortal and indestructible. I am the last of their kind. Darkseid unleashed his might against the New Gods and wiped them out of existence. I was found amongst the ruins of my people and taken to a couple who would become my parents. The man who rescued me from the genocide of my people bore the same symbol on your chest.”

Superman was taken aback by that last statement. There was no doubt that she meant his Kryptonian father, Jor-El. She was the first person, other than General Zod, who had actually met him. All he had was his conscious in a holographic form. “You’re talking about Jor-El, my father.”

“I figured as much,” Barda replied. “My people believe in a prophecy that one day, Darkseid will meet his demise in this reality. Based on your uncompromised will to protect these people and your relation with Jor-El, I believe you are the chosen one—the only one—who can defeat Darkseid.”

Superman shrugged. “I don’t know about this prophecy thing, and I certainly don’t like being called anyone’s savior. I’m just a visitor in a strange land, trying to live by example, that there is a better way to live life than hate.”

Barda cracked a wry smile. “Well, you’re up against hate incarnate. Darkseid believes that life and free will is an abomination. He worships death as a god, and he is always searching for the ultimate equation to solve the riddle of life. He searches for something which he calls the Anti-Life Equation. He is convinced that somewhere out there, there is a code that will give him the power to control all life, so he can either enslave or slaughter those he chooses.”

He had a sense of just how evil he could be, but hearing it from someone who’s seen it first hand was something all together different. If Darkseid was looking for this Anti-life Equation, that could be the real reason why he hasn’t attacked yet; he could be waiting and seeing if the human race had any part of that equation. “I will not let Darkseid have this planet. I will do whatever it takes to stop him. I could use your help though.”

Barda stepped back and shook her head. She was afraid of very little in life, but she was smart enough to fear Darkseid. “I can’t help you fight him. I’m now marked for death, and he would kill me on sight. I can’t help you with him, but I would be willing to help you destroy the device which turns your sun red. It’s here on this planet.”

Superman would have preferred her help against Darkseid; he had doubts that he could stop him alone, even at full strength. After everything that happened to her, though, he could not blame her for being afraid of him. Getting the yellow sun back would be a great help in of itself. It was an offer he was willing to take.

“You caught one of them, excellent!” Dan Turpin cheered as he weaved his way through parked and demolished cars. “There’s going to be hell to pay for what was done to Mags!”

“I didn’t catch anyone, Lieutenant Turpin. The situation has gotten somewhat complicated; this woman is seeking Asylum.”

If it was possible to spontaneously combust, he would be a raging inferno right there in the middle of Metropolis. Superman could hear his heart speed up and he could see his muscles intensify. His nostrils flared, as he was clearly not happy by the request. “Are you crazy? She and her goons just tore up my headquarters, killed a few of my agents, and sent Mags to the hospital!”

“Her actions were not her own. She was forced to do the things she’s done with brain washing.”

Turpin was not thrilled with the idea of her getting off especially after what happened to Maggie. He wanted someone’s head to roll for this. “Maybe that’s true,” he grunted. “but by law, she has to be incarcerated until the court decides the matter and/or the government grants her amnesty. I have no authority to grant such a request. By law, I have to put her in prison until a decision is made.”

“You’ll have hell to pay if you think you can imprison me,” Barda scowled.

Superman raised his hands to try to calm everyone down before things started to get heated. “Lieutenant, I understand and respect the position you are in and the law of the land. I promise that something will be done to appease the law. I believe I know someone who does have the ear of the pentagon and the white house and does have the authority.”

Turpin knew who he was talking about, and almost couldn’t believe he was going to leave her fate up to him. “General Lane? Oy, you’ve got your work cut out for you.” Turpin did not like General Lane. The general was over zealous to a fault. He was by-the-book to such a degree that he lacked any form of compassion. How Superman was going to rely on someone like that was beyond him.

“Anyway, right now, I need her help. She is going to help me destroy the device that’s been turning Earth’s sun red.”

Turpin sighed, feeling pulled in two separate directions. He had the law that he had to follow, but if there was a remote chance this woman could help him save the earth, shouldn’t he bend the law just a little for the sake of millions of souls on the planet? Superman assured him that the law would be followed in her process of seeking asylum. If there was one thing he was certain of, it was Superman’s willingness to appease the laws of America. “I suppose her incarceration could be delayed under the circumstances. You’re responsible for her.”

“I understand and agree.” Superman replied without any hesitation.

Barda remained silent, but she almost respected him for lowering himself to the level of these humans were pretty inferior in comparison to him. He could easily bring this world under his submission, but he chose to humble himself and to live by their rules. When the time was needed, he was the first to step forward and to protect these people from forces that were beyond their control.

“So, are you ready?” he said, turning towards her

“No, are you ready? I hope the girls and I didn’t beat you up too much.”

Superman smiled. Yes, they had done a number on him, and his powers continued to wane, but he could not afford to give up now. The fate of the world was resting on his shoulders, and if he could just push on just a little longer, he would be able to return to full strength shortly. “Funny, I was about to say the same thing to you.”

She pulled out a portable remote. She spun the turn dial a quarter of the way around and then pressed the red, glowing button. There was a blinding flash of light before the boom tunnel took form. It looked like a tunnel made of nothing but rings of white light.

“Be warned, this is not going to be easy.”

“Easy or not, we have a mission to accomplish, and failure is not an option.”

They were about to enter the boom tunnel before Tuprin grabbed Superman by the arm. The more he thought about this, the more uncomfortable he was about what was happening. That uneasiness had only increased as he was watching them step towards the tunnel of light. “Can you really trust her? I mean, doesn’t this smell suspicious to you? How do you know she’s not leading you to your doom?”

“I’ve already told him that the device is going to be heavily guarded,” Barda snarled impatiently. “What more do you want?”

Superman nodded as he looked over to his friend. “She’s proven that she deserves at least an opportunity to prove herself. If there’s any chance that the sun can be restored, I have to take it.” There was more to this than getting his full strength back. The effects of the red sun were having more effects than just turning him into a mortal man. Life on this planet depended on the yellow sun. Plant life was already starting to die because of the lack of proper sun light. If this was allowed to continue for months on end, all food sources would dry up. Many solar powered electronics have started to die because they were incapable of receiving the proper rays from the sun. If the sun was not restored soon, the world would find itself back in the Stone Age. That was more than enough reason to trust Barda and take this opportunity to restore Earth’s sun to normal. If this was so elaborate ploy to deliver him into the hands of Darkseid, then so be it.

Turpin relented as he stepped back. This was Superman’s risk to take, and there was nothing he could do to convince him otherwise. Superman has proved to be a very good judge of character most of the time, despite his tendency to see the best in everyone. If he truly felt that he could trust her, then he had to respect his decision and hope that it didn’t cost him his life. “Very well.”

With no more protests, Superman and Barda walked into the tunnel of light. When their figures vanished in the brightness, it vanished out of thin air, leaving Turpin alone in the middle of a chaos stricken street.

 

Well, I though there was hope, but forget about it. No one seems to really be reading this story, so as of now, this story is not going to be continued here.

 

Okay. I was convinced to try a little longer.

 

I will not be able to get the next chapter up this weekend. I've been too focused finishing the final chapter of my HTTYD story.